Fatal Instant
by rowanred81
Summary: Future Horror/Thriller AU set in October of 2017! Four years after the destruction of Arcadia Bay, Max Caulfield and Chloe Price return to where it all started for them as a couple for one of Max's college photography projects and closure. But what if some doors can't be closed? Multiverse! Spirit Photography! Ghosts! Adventure! NOT FOR THE FAINT OF HEART (cover by summerfelldraws)
1. Chapter 1

**"Missing" by Evanescence**

 **October 2017**

Chloe sat at the counter of Indigo Ink, the small tattoo shop she had opened up in the strip mall a few blocks away from where Max and her rented their apartment. Scratching at her blue beanie, her indigo hair halfway down her back, she absently played with the strap of her old Misfit Skull tank straps as she eyed the scuff on her black leather jeans. Aside from two scheduled appointments and some university's sorority all wanting their nipples pierced, it had been a relatively slow day. _Man, this is hella lame_ , Chloe thought as she sipped at the bottled water she kept in the micro-fridge behind the counter that had pictures of her artwork and the piercing jewelry on display. _I should've brought my Vita, played some Corpse Party or Silent Hill. Ooh, Mortal Kombat!_

Chloe groaned aloud as she spun on the stool and her employee and fellow artist Ash chuckled from the room she was using to finish up a customer's tattoo of a clockwork angel wing with razors for feathers. Chloe glanced over her shoulder, her body facing the sketching table that was up against the wall opposite the counter and flipped off Ash.

"What was that for?" Ash asked, pausing in her tattooing as she lifted the gun up and the slight hum of it was silenced.

"Dunno. Felt like it," Chloe grumbled as she pulled out her phone, "Is it 4pm yet?"

"… _Ahh_ ," Ash intoned with a sly grin on her face before she looked down to pick up where she had left off, a single _tzzt_ of the tattoo gun followed by its usual hum as she went back to work, "You're waiting for yo' _girlfriend~"_

"Eat me."

"I thought that was her job~," Ash retorted, sticking out her pierced tongue just as there was the sound of someone entering the small lobby that led into the tattoo shop proper.

The electronic door chime went off and Chloe's entire body snapped around to face forward as the small entryway's single window gave a hint of chestnut hair and her entire body trembled before she bolted for the smiling girl already opening her arms out for her as Max Caulfield wrapped her up in a tight hug. She smelled of coffee, lavender, and the clove-infused hash oil of her cigar tube-sized vape; Chloe loved all of it. _My Max,_ Chloe thought as she lifted up the diminutive hipster and smiled brightly at the sound of her girlfriend of four years giggling in amusement, _All mine._

"Chloe, if you don't put me down you're gonna hurt your back," Max chided before wrapping her legs around Chloe's waist as she nuzzled her face into Chloe's neck for several small kisses, "Mmm, you taste as good as you look."

"Hella yes, I do!" Chloe affirmed, chuckling at Max's half-assed flirting. _Four years and she's still awkward as fuck sometimes. Never change, Max. Well, don't change too much, okay?_ Setting her girlfriend down, Chloe gave Max a once-over despite having seen her off in the morning with a bacon omelette to split between them and some coffee.

Hair down past her shoulders, Max kept her bangs at the length they had been since Chloe could remember. It framed her freckled face nicely, and gave her a more mature, pretty appearance. Following it up with Chloe's sleeveless denim jacket, a band t-shirt from the live show they had seen the weekend before, Halestrom if Chloe remembered correctly, and jean shorts with her old Chuck Taylors, Max was a mix of old and new. The starkest contrast Chloe knew was the addition of the tattoos on Max's right forearm, a rosary-like weave of vines and ribbons that seemed to carry tattooed Polaroid photos, deer, and butterflies like a still-life display. The half-sleeve ran around Max's entire forearm in a colorful display, the only tattoo she had. _So far_ , Chloe thought as she admired her handiwork

"Thirsty?" Chloe asked, walking behind the counter with Max waving at Ash before joining Chloe behind the counter to take the offered water.

"Parched beyond belief," Max said between mouthfuls of water, "Self-defense classes are no joke. I can't believe you convinced me to take them."

"Dude, it wasn't just me. You're dad's a U.S. Marshal and your mom is an Assistant District Attorney in Seattle. I'm pretty sure you would've ended up doing something sick like Krav Maga or whatever if you hadn't volunteered to start taking _some type_ of self-defense training," Chloe half-joked, a smirk on her face for Max missing the obvious tease while she eyed Max's lean arms and the slight muscular definition that was starting to make itself known, "You a black belt yet? My little hippie gonna be my kickass ninja girlfriend?"

"They don't even have belts, dork," Max teased, poking Chloe in the side with a finger, "It's not one of those places where you can just pay your way up to a belt. It's about the training, not some achievement or colorful band around your waist. …A belt would be cool, though…and being a ninja does _sound_ pretty hardcore…"

Chloe smiled at Max's last comment then put her water back in the micro-fridge and sat on her stool so that she was facing Max as the brunette faced her from where she was leaning against the counter, her camera bag dangling at her hip like it had done for so many years now. _God, she's so fucking beautiful_ , Chloe thought as she took Max in before returning her attention to what had gone unsaid between them since Max had walked through the door. A continuation to their conversation that morning. A continuation that Chloe knew had to happen in spite of her not wanting to go there. Or _there_.

"Max, about this morning…," Chloe started, playing with her lip ring like she did when she got nervous as she tattooed arms together anxiously.

"…What's to talk about?" Max asked flatly, the disappointment on her face so blatantly obvious that all Chloe could do was sigh. It was clear to Chloe that the subject of their morning argument had stayed on her girlfriend's mind the entire day. "You said you don't want to go with me. _That_ settles _that_."

"Yeah, but just because I don't _want_ to does not mean I'm not at least a little willing to acquiesce to your request."

"Did you just say 'acquiesce'?"

"Hey, I have a hella sick vocab, Maxi-pad. That's beside the point. I know…I know how much this would mean for your portfolio…and how much it would mean to you. I dunno. Maybe I need it, too."

The hum of the tattoo gun was all that could be heard in the tattoo shop as Chloe waited for Max to react: Open her mouth, speak, squeal, snort, whatever. Chloe needed for Max to do something other than just blankly stare at her like she had just said something terrible.

"C-Chloe…," Max stammered out, her tone unreadable until Chloe caught the slight ire in the brunette's eyes, "I've been at you about this for _weeks_ and you're just now admitting that maybe you need this, too?"

"Maximus, babe, look. You spent five years away, and I was there the entire time. You come back and there's…there's all the shit that went down. My mom is still rattled sometimes when I visit her here in town, never mind the added shell shock it gave David. Dude's like a fucking ghost after four fucking years, man, and he still won't talk about what went down at that bomb shelter."

"I…I know I'm asking a lot, Chloe. Wowser, a _lot_ of a lot. I just think that it would help me…help _us_ …if there was some real closure. I mean… We left, Chloe. We left and we never went back. Not even for the relief effort. We just holed up at my parents' until you could get into a college and then I was doing homeschool to wrap up high school while working a full-time barista gig…"

"I _know_ , Max," Chloe said, lifting her butt off the seat to take Max's hands in her own as she brought the fingertips to her lips and kissed them, "I know, babe. That's why I'm…I'm saying that while I don't want to go I probably need to, like you do. It's time, Max."

"So, we're really doing it?"

"We're really doing it," Chloe said as she fished out her cigarettes and lighter while Max took a puff of her vape as they headed out the front door for a smoke, "We're going back to, well, whatever's left of Arcadia Bay."

"…Wowser…"

"Yeah. No shit, wowser," Chloe added, ruffling Max's hair as the electronic door chime went off from them heading outside.

* * *

The apartment door opened to the scent of that morning's leftover coffee and stale air, Max running to the kitchen to crack open the window with a grimace at the smell of the place easily visible on her face. Sweat, stale air, dirty clothes in need of washing, and old coffee – it was _definitely_ her and Chloe's apartment, the two of them combined to create a never-ending battle between Chloe's disasterpiece mentality when it came to cleanliness and Max's self-admitted OCD toward ensuring that the place was as clean as she could make it while living in the same space as her cerulean-haired punk. Taking in a breath of the fresh air making its way into the apartment, Max looked at the dirty dishes and grimaced again before she started the faucet in the kitchen sink only to feel arms wrap around her from behind. _Oh, no you don't, Chloe Elizabeth Price,_ Max thought as she ignored the soft touches and gentle hugging as her girlfriend's lean abs pressed against her back, _You promised you'd clean up before you went to work._

"You promised, Chloe Price," Max intoned in a flat voice, eyeing her girlfriend from over her shoulder, "I'm happy beyond belief that you've agreed to take the trip back to the Bay with me, but this was something you had agreed to beforehand. What happened to 'No sweat, baby. I gotcha. Place'll be sparkly as fuck'?"

"Uh… Can I plead the fifth? Can I ask for a mistrial? All your evidence is circumstantial, anyway," Chloe said with a shaky grin, "After all, you have no witnesses to confirm this statement I _allegedly_ made."

"One – you watch too much _Law and Order_ while you're at work," Max said, smacking Chloe with a freshly-washed spatula, "And, ugh, you _promised_ me that you'd clean before you left, Chlobear…"

Max knew her pout held considerable sway against Chloe, more so because she did not really pout all that much. She had not even realized that the pout was in full-gear until Chloe was trying to avoid looking directly at her with a look of slow resignation on her face. _Oops_ , Max thought as she quickly tried to make her facial expression as non-pouty as possible to Chloe's visible relief.

"I'm still upset," Max warned, spatula in hand as Chloe started to smile, "You know that I plan on leaving tomorrow for Arcadia Bay and since you're coming with there's a list of things that need doing, Chloe. This… We could've been doing something nice like pizza, Netflix, and cuddles instead of cleaning up…"

"Dude, we still totally _can_!" Chloe insisted, the words _pizza_ and _cuddles_ seeming to spur her into motion as she began to gather all the clutter around the apartment and sort everything out at double-time to Max's sudden shock. Not questioning or choosing to ask about where the burst of energy came from, Max instead returned to the dirty dishes and thought about Arcadia Bay as she scrubbed, rinsed, and dried the motley assemblage in the sink of hot, soapy water.

 _Arcadia Bay_ , Max thought as she absently washed the dishes with Chloe left to her own devices, _It would almost feel like a dream if the scars from that week weren't still around in some capacity. Chloe's need to be held in her sleep every night, the sometimes distant look on Joyce's face when we come over for dinner and she has to wheel herself around in the wheelchair when it's a bad day for her back._ Max thought of David, the once energetic and nigh-unapproachable security guard broken down into a blank-faced shell of himself. _The way he stares at everyone when he's mentally with us enough is just…just so creepy. I…I'm pretty sure I know why he's like this, but I wish that things could've been different. For so many people._

Max knew that people had gotten out of the Bay, or had at least found shelter. Aside from seeing Victoria in Seattle with Taylor, however, she had no clue as to who survived. She'd closed down her Facebook that day as they drove and had never bothered to look things up regarding Arcadia Bay. _Neither had Chloe_ , Max thought, _We just turned away because we knew what saving her had cost and we could only move forward. Going back now, after getting our lives together,_ our _life together, feels like it gives us more of an advantage._

"Yo, Space Cadet!" Max heard Chloe say before she was startled by the sprinkle of dishwater on her face, "Hey, Max. You okay? You're trippin' out again, dude!"

"Uh, yeah. Just…Just thinkin' about tomorrow…and years ago…," Max said with a solemn tone to her voice before two blue-nailed hands cupped her face and she found a pair of lips desperately in need of kissing. Max let Chloe hold her for a while in contemplative, protective silence with her eyes shut to block out the world save for her girlfriend.

"Still awake?"

"Oh gawd, Chloe," Max said with a smirk as she buried her face into Chloe's shoulder, "I fell asleep in your arms _once_ and you'll never let it go. We'd been up for hours waiting for _The Force Awakens_! How could I _not_ have eventually crashed?"

"But…you fell asleep…in my arms…like a princess-"

"Stop it, you egg," Max said, gently pushing herself out of the embrace to inspect Chloe's work, "Wow. You shoved and carried everything to spots where the clutter is visually minimized. Nice."

"Soooooo…," Chloe said, traipsing her fingers up Max's sternum, "Do I get pizza and Netflix with my baby?"

"I dunno. You think you've been good?"

"Hella good. Super amazeballs freakin' wonderful. At this point, I'm like a goddamn patronus, protecting you from all the things," Chloe said, a wry grin on her face as she crossed her arms and pouted. Max loved the snake bite piercings on Chloe's lower lip, and knew that her tall girlfriend was playing that card.

"Pizza and _Potter_ , then," Max said, emphasizing the last word in her best Lucius Malfoy impersonation, "Half meat-lovers, _half_ pepperoni with all the spicy peppers."

"Ooh, do we get the chocolate-lava cakes? Pwease?"

"Uh, when _weren't_ we going to get the choco-lavas?"

* * *

The drive had felt longer than it actually had been before they reached the part where the highway split off into the old blacktop that led to what had been Max and Chloe's childhood hometown. A pair of concrete dividers set up to block traffic with "CAUTION!" on an orange sign with a pair of red stop signs flanking the large, reflective, and garish display. Max braced herself against the door of their old Jeep Liberty and the dash as Chloe drove off-road and around the dividers before pulling back onto the surprisingly clear road that led into what had been Arcadia Bay. _It's almost like nature has stalled_ , Max thought as she watched the scenery while Chloe rolled them along at a reduced speed, _If it weren't years later it might have been maybe a day or an entire week. Weird._

"Am…Am I the only one getting hella creeped out right now?" Max heard Chloe ask, the brunette turning her head to see Chloe's hands gripping the steering wheel with a choke hold that might otherwise strangle a person to unconsciousness. Placing a hand reassuringly on one of Chloe's, Max felt her girlfriend's tension ease up a little.

"No, you are most definitely _not_ the only one getting the heebie-jeebies from all this," Max said in a calm voice, keeping her own anxiousness to herself as best as she could manage, "It's like-"

"It's like nothing ever fucking happened, Max," Chloe said as they crested a hill and she pulled the jeep over to the shoulder before parking the vehicle, "I mean, fuck, just look at it. No birds, no deer or rabbits or animals, but otherwise this place looks just like how we left it when we peeled the fuck outta here, babe. Doesn't _that_ make you wanna turn the fuck 'round and go take pictures of, um, whatever?"

"It…It scares me a little, but I think it's scary in general to be doing this. We're doing more than just going back to Arcadia Bay, Chloe. We're looking at what _I_ chose," Max said, her last sentence coming out with a faltering voice as she looked down at her lap and the Polaroid camera that had once belonged to William Price.

"No. No, Max, don't you even fucking start that shit. You didn't _ask_ to be given all those choices, to get fucked with like you did. You did the best you could and to hell with whoever says otherwise! I won't let you beat yourself up over a no-win scenario. You totally saved me, over and over, and we may never know if the storm was coming on its own or not-"

"But Chloe-"

"But _nothing._ I won't have you beating yourself up because of _one thing_ in a lifetime," Chloe said, her ire raised enough that what inhibitions she'd had were subdued. Putting the SUV out of park and back into drive, Chloe and Max headed down the hill and closer to their destination.

Chloe brought them to the parking lot for the beach and switched off the ending after putting the jeep in park. Both girls climbing out from their respective sides, Max slung her camera bag and checked it's contents. A Canon EOS Rebel SLR with two 64GB memory cards and the old Polaroid camera Chloe had given her with packs and packs of film. Looking over to her partner-in-crime, Max watched Chloe sling a rucksack that held their drinks, first aid kit, and sandwiches that they had prepared earlier that morning. The creases on her girlfriend's forehead pursed Max's lips, but when she walked over and slipped her free hand into one of Chloe's the lines faded. _I know you don't really want to be here, Chlo. Neither do I. Not really. This… It's just too good of a photography idea to pass up! It's like Nature itself has stood still here. No overgrowth, no dilapidation of any structures that were still standing. It's as though time itself has rejected the entire town._

"Where you wanna start, babe? You're the shot-caller," Chloe chimed in, snapping Max out of her own head with the same crooked smile that made her fall in love with the punk every time she used it, "Fire away!"

"Uh, how about the beach? Where the whales…where they hopefully _were_?" Max suggested, pulling out the Polaroid camera as she and Chloe walked down the sidewalk path that stretched along the beach, the lighthouse perched on the hill behind them as they headed opposite of it. A couple times, Max found herself nearly looking back at it, the garish half-building almost seeming to call to her. _Wowser_ , Max silently thought to herself as she composed herself and began to take some candid shots and a couple selfies of herself and Chloe on their little expedition.

"Nice to see you relaxing a bit," Chloe said, a faint whiff of jealousy in the way she congratulated Max, "Wish I could get over this as easily as you, dude."

"It's not about getting over it inasmuch as it's moving past what led to all this," Max said, squeezing Chloe's hand with their fingers interwoven together, "What was it I told you back then? 'You are all that matters to me'? Still applicable."

"D'awww, you're hella cute when you get all reminiscent about the many ways in which you love me," Chloe said, tucking some loose hair behind her ear as a faint pink came to her cheeks, "I guess that's what I need. This isn't a bad thing, not really. It's just the two of us, moving on. We're at what remains of our old hometown, snappin' some photos."

"Exactly."

"Right."

Silence befell them as they reached the point where Frank Bower's RV had once been and they looked out from the small hill to see the tide slowly move up toward land only to pull itself back into the ocean. No whales, no debris, and no sign of life. Just like the ride past the small blockade, it was as if time had frozen. The small bits of grass were not overgrown nor were they long dead – they simply were. There was no sign of sea life, however, and as Max took photo after photo she could not shake the slight, nagging dread that they would only find more of this as they went along. _It's like time has become stagnant, unmoving. What did you_ do _, Max Caulfield_ , Max thought as she replaced the camera back in her back and pulled out the Canon SLR to take some higher quality shots while Chloe sipped at a water canteen. Taking a quick shot of Chloe with a mouthful of water, Max leapt back with a yelp of surprise when the other girl shot out a small stream of water between her pursed lips in Max's direction.

"C-Chloe…!" Max said, dodging yet another spurt of water, her agitation half-hearted as a giggle bubbled up from her throat, "D-Dammit, stop! _Stop_ , Chloe!"

"That'll teach you to photo ninja me, Caulfield. Your Irish luck is strong, but not that strong. You are not a Jedi yet," Chloe said after swallowing what remained of the water in her mouth, an impish grin on her face, "We done here? Ready for the next spot?"

"Yeah… Yeah, I think so," Max said, shaking her head as she put the Canon back into her camera bag, "I… The lighthouse."

"You for reals?" Chloe asked, though the real surprise belonged to Max as she had not so much said it as felt that the words had been pulled out of her from somewhere else, "Uh, hella yes…?"

"Don't sound _too_ excited, Chlo."

"It's just that there's a lot of mixed shit up there, Max. Like, good…bad…fucking terrifying… You _really_ want to-"

"Not…Not _want_. More like _have to_ ,"Max said, hoping that she could wade through the verbal slush trying to pour out of her mouth, "It's like, um, where everything started. Besides, we're already here in the area…"

Max watched Chloe's face turn into a mask of concern and pensiveness. The lighthouse had been the first place they had really come back together as a pair all those years ago and the last place they had been in Arcadia Bay before leaving it behind for years. If anything, it would have made more sense for Max to select that place last. To bring it up among the first spots to visit, even if there was a logic behind it because they were relatively closer to it than the actual town, the lighthouse was still something of a mystery…and a reminder. _All those people, people we never knew and people we did know. Who survived, managed to either get into shelter or get out of town?_ Max thought as she continued watching Chloe mull over the idea, _Who…?_

 _Who_ didn't _survive? And why does it look like no time has passed here? This all makes absolutely no sense whatsoever._

"Wowser…," Max mumbled to herself, reaching down to pick at an old flyer inviting people to a rally protesting the Prescotts' Pan Estates developmental project. _It's been four years. This should be mulch, or whatever._

"Hey," Chloe said, laying a hand gently on Max's shoulder as the brunette got up from where she'd been kneeling, "If you're up for the lighthouse, so am I. We do this together, yeah? I'm hella ready."

"You're sure?" Max asked, sensing a slight inhibition in Chloe's posturing.

"Dude, don't stop the momentum while it's going. C'mon – let's just get this done. Then, we can go check out how bizarre the rest of the town is. If this spot looks untouched, imagine how hella weird the rest of the town is!"

Max smiled at Chloe's encouragement, forced as it might be, and nodded. The lighthouse was a trek up the hill on which it resided, but they were now both determined to make the climb. Slipping the Canon SLR into her bag, Max grabbed Chloe by the shoulders and stood on her tip-toes to give the blue-haired punk a kiss. Their lips connecting, then seeming to melt together as warm breath and warm tongues slid together for a moment, Max's tongue played with the tongue ring Chloe was sporting. _Maybe I should get a tongue ring, too. Swear to Dog, the things she can do with that stud when we're_ …

"Okay, Mega-Max," Chloe said, pulling away, "Down, girl. There'll be enough time for that when we get home. Let's do this, a'ight?"

Wagging her butt ever so slightly as she took the lead, Max watched Chloe's spring in her step as the taller of the two girls headed toward the spot along the beach which led toward the lighthouse path. _She's putting on a strong front, but we both know how hard this is, and the truth._

 _We're scared to be back._

* * *

"Come on, slowpoke!" Chloe cheered as she waited patiently at the small map of the hill trails as Max headed toward her from further back in the trail. _It's always like this_ , Chloe mused with a wry smile on her face as Max looked up at her with a mockingly-cute pout, _Max and me, well, more_ me _leading the way on another adventure. Even with her school and my night classes and work, we find time to have adventures and movie nights…even if sometimes the adventures are in bed..._ Chloe grinned and held out her arms as a worn-out Max Caulfield practically fell into them. She'd get Max later for that, for so dramatically falling into her arms. _Even if it's from exhaustion. You're no match for my teasing talents, my "wee Irish lass"._

"Need a break?" Chloe asked, kissing Max on the crown of her chestnut hair as she ran her fingertips through the undercut and its trimmed hair, "God _damn_ , Max, this is pretty sick! I am hella much loving this new look, not gonna lie. Epic."

"Mmm," Max replied nuzzling her face into Chloe's chest as the taller of the two girls continued with the impromptu scalp massage, "I think I'm in Heaven. Don't…Don't stop."

"Aww, babe…," Chloe said with another kiss, this one on the freckled nose of her girlfriend, before stopping, "We have to get your photography project done. _Then_ we can go home and I can play masseuse to _all_ your aches, wants, and needs."

"…Deal," Max said with a slight _humph_ before tilting Chloe's chin down with her thumb and forefinger to plant a single kiss on the taller girl's lips, "I love you, you know."

"I know," Chloe said with a wink before taking Max's hand and leading her up along the path, "You hella love me."

"You're not gonna say it back?"

"Oh, I was doing a thing. _Empire_ , remember? 'I love you' and 'I know'?"

"Ohhhh, so you were being a jerk because pop culture reference," Max teased, making it Chloe's turn to pout before Max giggled and moved to walk beside her along the trail, "I can tease too, dork. _Remember, Remember, the ninth of October, the kiss that time forgot. I can think of no reason why that kiss wasn't pleasin', though a kiss back I received not…"_

"Shaddup!" Chloe said, though the stifled laughter on her face said more as the two girls advanced up the hill hand-in-hand.

The warm glow of sunset spilled over the small landscape as the pair finally reached the top of the hill, sun rays between trees giving way to an open, sunlit space that was a reminder of where their journey had both ended and started. The lighthouse, looking as though it had been _ripped_ in half rather than blown, stood with a jagged-edged opening as bits of it and the small shack cluttered the hilltop along with downed trees and various rocks. The park map, oddly untouched by either time or the years-old storm, felt worn and familiar as Max traced her fingers along its surface with Chloe paying attention to something just outside of the tree line.

"Max! C'mere!" Chloe called out to her girlfriend, waving the brunette over to a tree stump, "Check it!"

"What's this?" Max asked with an amused smile. Under the '2008' of their 'Max & Chloe BFF Pirates' were the numbers '201', "Chloe, for reals?"

Max giggled a little when Chloe handed her the butterfly knife and tried to dig into the wood with her own strength. Whereas Chloe's engravings looked as though it had been with relative ease, the trunk's bark alone did not seem to _want_ to yield to Max's pressure or power. Grunting with a little extra effort, Max kept her eyes trained on where she was cutting but rolled them when she heard Chloe snicker. _Ha ha, Chloe, so I hit a rough patch of the wood on this old stump,_ Max thought as she endeavored to make her own mark on the old knot of wood, _It's not like I'm "Miss Feeble" from when we got back together, all shy and meek. Geez, give a girl_ some _credit for growing up…well, growing up_ some _._

With an additional amount of force and some curses under her breath, Max let out a gasp of suppressed laughter when she was finally able to start carving into the trunk. A few moments later and a jagged '7' was next to the '201' Chloe had left behind. Turning around, eyes closing at the cool breeze that washed over her, Max stood up and opened her eyes in one motion to find Chloe gone for only a moment before a pressure began to build in her head. A hand to her head, Max stumbled back and fell onto the tree stump, a grunt emanating from her lips when she landed on the misshapen top of the stump. The headache had come out of nowhere, and it felt to Max as though her head was being split into several pieces. _God, this is just like…just like those headaches from back then…_ Max checked her nose, found no trace of blood; instead, rain battered her face in the blink of an eye and she watched from where she sat as Chloe Price, 19 years old, stood at the cliff's edge of the hilltop.

"W-What…?" Max stammered out, wiping the water from her face as she pulled the hood of her sleeveless vest up, looking over at an equally-perplexed teenage version of her girlfriend. A version that was all too familiar, "I'm…I'm back here, at the storm? How? I-I haven't had any powers _since_ the storm-"

"Max…? Max? How…?" Chloe asked as she began to cross the distance between them, grabbing onto Max's shoulders as though to ensure that she were real, "Dude, I just saw you disappear or flicker or whatever and… Are you older…? Max, what the _fuck_ is going… Look out!"

Max felt hands slam into her chest and was pushed back into the tree line as part of a building was carried up by the storm and landed where she had been only seconds before.

Where Chloe had just been standing.

 _Chloe._

"Chloe?! _Chloe?!_ " Max screamed through the wind as she scrambled to her feet, unsure of what was going on but knowing that she needed to find out.

* * *

Chloe Price looked away from Max for a second as the diminutive girl struggled to leave her mark on their old stump and appreciate the coastal view. It had not been her decision to come back to what was left of Arcadia Bay, and a _lot_ of what they had found so far had done nothing but wig her the fuck out, but Chloe was glad to be here if only because it meant she could appreciate it through Max's eyes. Looking out to the water, how the sun played along the rippling surface, it made Chloe think of old memories…some she would have liked to have kept buried…

 _Rachel_ , Chloe thought as she remembered the last time she and Rachel had gone out onto the beach, crashing a Vortex Club party with Justin and Trevor. _Hella good times_ , Chloe thought in reminiscence before looking back to the stump to find Max gone.

"Max?" Chloe asked with a curious tone as she looked from side to side before turning around to look over and see Max sitting on the bench beside a _restored_ lighthouse, "Dude, um, what the absolute fuck-"

"Chloe?" Max asked, and when the girl turned around to look at Chloe the punk felt her heart melt as the 18 year-old version of her girlfriend looked at her with eyes wide in wonder, " _Chloe_?"

"Th-This…This is epically crazy-balls," Chloe said as she began to back away when the teenage Max Caulfield got to her feet, "N-No, you…you stay there. _I_ am not 4:20-ing, my dude, so this is some of your fucked-up time travely shit. Or something. Maybe. Fuck, I dunno!"

Before the teenage brunette could say anything, Chloe spun on the heel of her boot and was bolting down the hill. Nearly tripping over her own feet multiple times as she fought to make her way down as fast as physically possible, Chloe could hear but chose to ignore the shouts of her girlfriend's teenage counterpart from the hilltop. _Please tell me I didn't just fuck up time, please tell me I didn't just fuck up time_ , Chloe thought over and over like a mantra as she skidded down the last straight swath of trail before veering onto the grassier, less used branching point which led to where their SUV had been parked. Feeling a knotting pain in her forehead before she reached the beach, Chloe closed her eyes and pinched the bridge of her nose before opening them again to find the SUV waiting for her _sans_ a 22 year-old Max Caulfield.

"Max? _Max_?!" Chloe called out, pacing down the beach with her hands cupping her mouth, "Maxine Caulfield! Mad Max! Maximus, c'mon! This weird-ass shit's not cool or pretty! I wanna go _home_!"

"…c…cHloE…," Chloe heard in an airy whisper from nearby and she looked over to see a water-logged, teenage version of her girlfriend. The sight brought an all-too real pain to Chloe's chest as she recognized not only what this Max was wearing but what state the girl was in. This Max…was dead….

Glassy-eyed, with dried blood leaving streaks from her nose, ears, and eyes, Max shuffled toward Chloe even as the taller girl backpedaled away from the dead girl while trying not to whimper from the sight. _Th-Those clothes… They're from that day at the beach…the day of the storm..._ Chloe thought as she found herself pressed up against the SUV, _Is this a place where Max…where the headaches and nosebleeds got more serious? Is_ this _what could have happened to her if we kept using her powers?_

Cold seeped into her when "Max" brushed up against her before Chloe could scramble out of the way, and her heart felt like it lurched into the pit of her abdomen as though to hide itself away from whatever was the source of that iciness. It carried pain with it, pain that spread like frostbite and felt both physical and emotional. Chloe nearly broke down into tears when "Max" had made contact with her.

"..c-c-chLoEEEE…!" It cried out, the thing wearing the face of Chloe's loved one. It was Max, but it wasn't. Not her Max. _It…It_ can't _be real! This can't be fucking real!_

Not giving whatever "It" was another chance to touch her or even come near her, Chloe ran around to the passenger side of the SUV and climbed into the driver's seat through the other side, starting up and pulling out of the parking spot almost simultaneously. Ignoring the wail of agonizing despair that she heard emanate from back at the beach as she peeled out onto the road, Chloe found herself heading for town rather than away from it.

"Gonna… Gonna regroup, gather my fucking shit together, and then I'm gonna find Max. _My_ Max," Chloe thought as she checked her reflection in the rear view mirror, not paying attention to the blue butterfly that had somehow gotten inside the SUV as it fluttered around in the back seat area.

* * *

 _"_ No. Nonononono, C-Chloe…!" Max let out in a mix of a shout and a whimper, her eyes tearing up as quickly as she made it to the collapsed wreckage of what had landed where a 19 year-old version of her girlfriend had just stood. _She…She saved me, pushed me out of harm's way only to take the hit herself. Goddammit, Chloe, you can't be dead! You_ can't _!_ "Chloe? Chloe, say something! _Chloe?!_ "

Max began to toss the debris away from where she thought Chloe might be, board after board strewn past either shoulder as she furiously clawed at the splintered remains to find the girl who had just saved her life. The truth of the matter, that she was somehow back in October of 2013, was a dim spark in the back of her mind. The only thing that was at the forefront was a desperate need to save the blue-haired punk that she had fallen in love with so many times over the past four years. Sometimes for Max it was just a look from Chloe, or waking up to find that Chloe had been holding her through one of her rougher nightmares. Other times it was a shared laugh or something they did together that the taller girl had somehow made even more amazing and fun. Max could not count the times she had fallen in love all over again with Chloe Price – she only knew that with each time it was like their love for one another was even stronger. Chloe brought out Max's rebellious, empowered streak just as Max had cooled Chloe's temper into a means venting her pain into artistic expression. The illustrations had come easy to Chloe, so Max had convinced her parents to co-sign a small business loan for Chloe so that she could open a tattoo parlor. Business was steady for the azure-haired rebel, and they were both fixtures at local rock shows as well as at independent art galleries.

"Please be alive…," Max uttered to herself in a husky whisper, fingers and forearms scratched from the wood as she finally saw a mop of blue hair and a torn beanie after pulling away a half-splintered door, "C-… Chloe…? Chloe, can you hear me?"

"…Looks…Looks like it was my turn to save your life, M-Max," Chloe said before coughing up a mouthful of blood, her face a wrenched mask of pain for a moment when she tried to move, "I… I can't feel my legs. Oh God, Max, I think my back's broken! Max… Max, how are you even-?"

"Not now, okay?" Max asked as she moved, pushed, and pulled the rest of the debris on Chloe off and away. Moving to sit beside her, Max took the trembling hands in her own and kissed the bloody knuckles with lips wet from tears and the pelting rain, "God, Chloe, I'm so sorry. You… You shouldn't have-"

"Shut the fuck up, Max," Chloe barked with some pink spittle on the edges of her mouth, "Of course I'm gonna totally save you. You've saved my…my worthless ass…so many times… How could I n-not?"

Max held onto Chloe's hands as the injured girl began to convulse and spasm from what she could only imagine was terrible pain, tears and sobbing now both in full swing as she feared Chloe would slip away before her eyes. Chloe's eyes seemed distant to her for a moment, and then they cleared as they looked at Max with a pained but gentle understanding.

"I…I w-wish you'd came back sooner, dude. We… We could've had s-so much fun, M-Max," Chloe said before she cried out from the pain, "God, it hurts so fucking much! Max… Max, you need to go, before this storm rages any further. Run as fast and as hard as you can, okay?"

"No! No, I'm _not_ leaving you to die, C-Chloe!" Max all but screamed back at the injured girl, "Don't you dare martyr yourself for me, Chloe Price! I'm… I'm still Super-Max!"

Her knees digging into the mud and splintered wood, she fought against the dead weight of Chloe's legs and pulled her girlfriend's younger self out of the wreckage and into the tree line before leaning against a tree herself. Max panted from all the exertion, her eyes hardening at the anger welling up inside her. This was her fault; coming back had been her choice and now everything was fucked up all over again. Letting out a throaty, raw scream, Max smacked the back of her head against the tree she was leaned up against and growled as she pulled out her cameras, both the Canon and the old Polaroid that had been William Price's.

"Fucking project…," Max grumbled as her hands shook with a camera in each. The thought of tossing them occurred to her for a moment before she angrily stuffed the Canon back in and just held William's old camera in her cupped hands, "I just had to come back here and take some goddamn pictures. Should've stayed the fuck away, like we had been for four motherfucking years…"

Slowly, laboriously, Max got to her feet and began to head back down the trail, rainwater and mud covering parts of her body as she shambled down the hill in a half-stupor with a shallow-breathing Chloe Price being carried on her back. Her mind partly gone from nearly watching _a_ Chloe die yet again, it was like the immediate aftermath of the storm all over again. For weeks, Max had said little to anyone and hardly eaten anything. It had taken Chloe's tearful plea for Max to come with her to counseling to get Max's numb shell to crack. Now, Max could feel that numbness start to creep up all over again as she walked hurriedly down the too-familiar path with William's camera in her hands and a broken Chloe on her back.

"We'll…," Max started to say as the storm continued to bear down on Arcadia Bay and the nearby area, trying to collect something coherent from the miasma of thoughts in her addled brain as she caught glimpses of the tornado through the trees, "We'll get you some help, Chloe. There's got to be… The hospital! The hospital's clear on the other side of town, away from where the storm is! Maybe it's still open… Maybe I can still save you! Chloe…Chloe, everything's going to be, well, better! I'll get you to the hospital, I swear!"

Silence. No reply could be heard from the girl perched on Max's back. It was then that Max noticed the slack, the lack of strength, in the arms she was holding as she continued to heft Chloe on her back.

"Chloe? C-Chloe…?" Max asked as a shallow, breathy whisper began to emanate from the younger Chloe and yet _not_ from her body.

"m-m-maXXXXXXXXXX…," a voice whispered through the gale winds, but Max's mind went blank and devoid of anything save autonomic function as she placed one foot ahead of the other while continuing to listen to the whispering, "I…I'm in _so much pain_!"

Unconsciously, Max looked over her shoulder and slipped in the muddiness of the trail as she landed on her butt before the crawling specter of the girl she had just been carrying. With legs unmoving and watery eyes, the ghost of the Chloe Price she was still carrying crawled down the path toward her at in jerking movements that left Max a shaking mess at how inhuman they seemed. _N-No! No, not this, too! Chloe… Chloe, you can't be dead! W-What is this?! Nothing's making any sense anymore…!_ Max thought as her mind began to lose what grip on rational thought that it had been able to maintain. Scrambling backwards, digging into the trail with her heels as she pushed herself back with one hand and both feet, the young photographer pressed William's camera to her chest like a shield as the pale blue apparition grew ever closer.

"C-Chloe…Chloe, I-I'm s-so sorry…," Max cried pleadingly as she felt an iciness when one of Chloe's spectral hands passed through a foot, "P-Please… Please don't hurt m-me…"

"It hurts, M-Max…," the ghost of Chloe Price said, anguish on her face with watery eyes facing Max, "I-I cAN'T feel ANYTHING…! I-I cAN'T s-s-seeeeeee youuuuuu!"

Pushing herself away instinctively as the apparition of her girlfriend's younger self passed yet another hand through her in a vain attempt to find the photographer, Max accidentally dropped William's camera to the ground and the flash went off as it took a photo from the jarring impact of hitting the ground. The ghost whimpered and scrambled back from what looked to Max like pain or fear as the film developed. _The…The camera…? Is it the flash, or the taking of a picture?_ Without thinking any further, her mind too much of a blurry mess to think that straight, Max took another shot and watched as the ghost of Chloe seemed to diminish. The pleading whimpering coming from the specter breaking Max's heart, Max nevertheless took one more shot and watched as the ghost flickered for a moment before seeming to burn away like she remembered how her vision would get as she would be drawn back into her own timeline when she had time powers.

All at once she was sitting on the ground in the dim light of a late autumn afternoon, the sky clear save for a few feathery clouds that left no sign of a storm or encroaching danger. Her breaths still coming in short, hard gasps, Max took a moment to orient herself as to where and _when_ she might be. _What…? Am I back? What was that, and how did I do that with the camera?_ Looking down at herself, noting that she was no longer waterlogged and muddied, Max cradled William's camera as she heard her phone go off in the camera bag. Setting the old Polaroid down, it's last shot of the younger Chloe Price's ghost still hanging from it, Max nearly choked on tears of happiness at the sight of a voicemail from _her_ Chloe Price.

" _Max! Max, I don't know where you are, o-or what the fuck is going on!_ " Chloe's voice rang through the smartphone's speaker as Max held it up in front of her, a smile of blessed relief on her face as tears ran down her eyes while she looked at her Chloe's contact photo of them together, " _I'm… I'm heading into town, but there's some hella freaky shit going on here and we need to meet up if you get this. I'm headed to my old house, so meet me there if you can. God, I hope you can. Max… Max, I love you. Please… Please just come back to me, okay, and let's just go home…_ "

"Wowser," was all Max could muster as she hung up the phone and laid back in the dirt of the dry trail for a moment to catch her breath and collect her thoughts. William's camera now perched on her chest as she lifted her arm up to look at a picture of a spectral Chloe Price in the autumnal light, Max peered at it and again could only bring the word "Wowser…" to her lips.

 _I'm coming, Chloe,_ Max thought, all focus on reuniting with her girlfriend and figuring out what the hell is going on.

 _I'm coming._

 ** _Author's Note -_**

 ** _Home again, home again._**

 ** _Hella jiggity jig._**

 _ **Thus ends the first installment of Fatal Instant. A fair amount of set-up only to punch you in the gut with alternate realities, spirit photography, and ghosts! I know parts of this might have been emotionally hard to read, but this is the second version of Chapter One that I've written. Ask my friend summerfelldraws on Tumblr how emotionally gut-wrenching the first version was in comparison. She'll tell you.**_

 _ **I'd like to say that this will get updated once every week, maybe two weeks. It just depends on a variety of things - my medical appointments, my health, and whatnot. Much like "Intersecting Worlds, Interconnected Hearts", I don't know how long this story will go. I just know that it won't be over until it is over.**_

 _ **So, until next time...**_

 _ **Stay hella, Cinnamon Rolls! :)**_


	2. Chapter 2

" **Every Day Is Exactly The Same" by Nine Inch Nails**

Walking along the highway leading into Arcadia Bay from where she had left the beach, Max Caulfield continued to try and wrap her head around what she had just witnessed, what she had _endured_. In the blink of an eye, she had gone from being in 2017 with her girlfriend to what she believed to be either a nightmare or the actual 11th of October from 2013. Shaking her head for not the first time since she had started her walk toward the abandoned town, Max looked down at the Polaroid picture hanging loosely from her left hand and lifted it up to her eye level. A spectral Chloe Price from 2013 looked back at her in a grimace of pain, frozen in the moment before she seemingly disappeared. _What the fuck does this all mean_? Max asked herself, _Chloe left me a message, a voicemail, so whatever it was that happened with…with that other Chloe…didn't affect anything outside of that time and place. But…_

"Taking her picture actually hurt th-the…the ghost Chloe, so is it like spirit photography or something like that?" Max thought aloud as she passed the worn 'Welcome to Arcadia Bay' sign that opened up the town proper to the highway. Stopping just inside the town limits, Max involuntarily shivered and stuffed the eerie photo into her camera bag as she checked her phone. "No more messages, and the signal keeps cutting in and out. Dammit, Chloe, call me again!"

Max had tried to get in touch with Chloe before she had started her walk, but all she had received in return was static or an automated message telling her that the number she was trying to reach was no longer in service. So little made sense to her in regards to everything that had happened after they had passed that barrier blocking the highway so that casual drivers wouldn't head toward Arcadia Bay. _The untouched nature of…of everything, like time has stood still right after the storm. It's almost like nature doesn't want to retake the land, like it's cursed or something._ Max scoffed faintly at the notion of an actual curse being brought upon the town, but then she vaguely remembered all the impromptu history lessons Miss Grant would give about the Native Americans who originally lived in the area _and_ the Prescotts seeming to lord over the town like they held some invisible grip over all of Arcadia Bay.

It didn't help Max any that the silence and desolation of the place were enough to send another shiver down her spine. Aside from a little clean-up to clear the streets as much as possible, Arcadia Bay had pretty much been completely left behind by the government. Half-wrecked houses and businesses remained in their broken states with little or no change. Max remembered driving through the storm to reach the Two Whales diner, a past reality that she could no longer call her own, just as easily as she remembered her and Chloe driving out of the town in Chloe's old truck. _We just up and left, left everything and everyone behind. We called once we were some ways away, but still… We just left…_

Max had made her way to a block short of Two Whales when she saw the faintest flicker in her vision, like a momentary glimpse of bluish-white static that did not belong. Knowing that the camera seemed to have an effect on the ghost of that Chloe from 2013, nightmare or not, Max figured she had nothing to lose as she brought the camera out of her bag and raised it up so that she was looking out of the viewfinder. Her hands unsteady in the late afternoon light of an ending sunset, Max kept one hand holding the camera and used the other to fish a Mag-Lite out of her bag and pointed it a short distance ahead so as to not trip over anything or lose her footing on the road; cleared enough for the little traffic that had come through with the short relief effort of getting survivors out did _not_ mean that the roads were completely free of debris.

"I know I saw something…," Max muttered to herself, camera aimed at the diner's parking lot, and it almost looked as though the letters of the broken neon sign said "DIE" as the fading sunlight played against the still-whole bulbs, "Yeah, that's not ominous at all, Max. Also, you're talking to yourself. Smooth, Caulfield."

Witty banter with herself was better than the eerie silence that permeated the town, however, so Max figured that talking to herself was better than nothing at all as she tried to catch the static-like flicker again. Her footsteps slowing as she began to enter the parking lot, Max reeled back when the flickering suddenly turned into a figure that lunged for her with a piercing howl of pain.

 _Frank. Frank Bowers._

The man who had made his living selling drugs, the dealer who had pulled a knife on Chloe only the second day they had been back together, weakly reached for Max with pale arms and empty eyes as he wordlessly cried out in pain. Max backpedaled, stepping back as quickly as she could to avoid getting touched by the iciness of death. She remembered how Chloe's ghost had felt when she had been touched – the cold had seeped through her so intensely that it had felt like her own life was draining away. Nearly taking a photo right then and there to do whatever it was that had affected the other ghost she had already encountered, Max paused when she remembered that her stockpile of instant film was limited. Lowering her camera, Max grimaced as she continued to backpedal and watched as Frank's ghost trailed her for a short period before seemingly losing interest. There was no recognition of who she was to the specter or acknowledgement of her as she continued to move away. Giving the diner a wide berth, Max made a point of looking anywhere but in the direction of the diner and instead ran as fast and hard as she could, dodging other whisps of blue ethereal light that were starting to manifest.

"I'm…I'm sorry," Max whispered, tears streaming down her face as she recognized one of the ghosts. _Alyssa._ _I'm sorry I couldn't save you from this. I'm so, so sorry,_ Max thought as she watched the ghost of her classmate stand aimlessly where she remembered the girl being trapped on the second floor of a partially-destroyed building. As the last glimmer of sunlight faded and the darkness of evening rushed forth, Max found more and more glowing blue lights emanating from various buildings and alleyways. _God, all these people. I…I did this, I did all of this…!_ Max continued to run as fast as she could, her years of isolating herself from almost any thought of Arcadia Bay as she and Chloe had left it turning into a nothingness as she was swept up in what felt like a fresh aftermath as the ghosts of those who did not make it out alive began to inhabit the abandoned town.

* * *

Chloe did not know what to make of what she had seen, that spectral Max on the beach, so she did not try beyond it simply being something horrible. Stopped a couple blocks away from her family's old house, telephone poles and wreckage from side streets not cleared out during the minimal relief effort from years ago, Chloe sat in the cab of her SUV and smoked a cigarette with her fingers digging into the steering wheel. _That…That was Max. No. No, Chloe, it wasn't_ your _Max. Some fucked-up time-space bullshit because_ your _Max isn't 18 years old anymore. Get your shit together, Price! Think. You left Max a message to meet at your house, so to your house you will go._ Sniffling once, Chloe flicked the cigarette stub out her driver's side window and grabbed the camping lantern in the rear seat. Whacking the side of it to make sure the flickering of light it emanated would stay lit after she had turned it on, night having already descended upon the eerie, abandoned town, Chloe switched off the engine and stepped out onto the street to navigate the debris blocking her vehicle. She had just reached the top of the pile of house parts and telephone poles when a "Chloe!" nearly had her falling over a steep drop some seven feet high. Turning in the direction of the shout, Chloe thought she might cry as her Max Caulfield came running up the street. Climbing down the wreckage as quickly as she could, she met and embraced Max just as the other girl had opened her arms to latch onto Chloe.

"Oh! Oh, thank fucking God!" Chloe said as she gripped the back of Max's sleeveless jacket tightly, burying her face in the shorter girl's shoulder, "I fucking thought… Max, it was horrible! There was another you, a-"

"A dead v-version of me, right?" Max cut Chloe off, the punk pulling back to look at her with alarm, "I…I can't imagine how that was for you, Chloe, but I saw something similar with another version of you. It was like I was with you one moment, and with you during the day of the storm all over again!"

"Like one of those visions you used to have? Max, you were _dead_ and _a fucking ghost_. There was blood coming from…from everywhere, like your powers had liquified your brain or something!" Chloe said, her voice almost carrying a pleading quality to it, like she really needed to say it and for Max to hear it. "It sounds fucking insane just saying it out loud, but it felt so hella real…"

"I think…," Max started to say as they walked to the SUV and leaned against it, the both of them weak from recent events, "I think time is still fucked up here, and that's why I maybe _was_ in 2013. Maybe it even has something to do with what we each saw. Chloe, I took pictures of…of the ghost I saw and it _disappeared._ "

Chloe's head tilted a little to the left at this as she pondered what Max meant. Her eyes darting back and forth in thought, she pulled out a cigarette and lit up. Taking a drag, she let the smoke out through her nose before responding to Max's statement.

"So, it's like spirit photography? A camera obscura?" Chloe asked, almost sounding more intrigued than worried when considering what they had each recently encountered. "But your camera is _just_ a camera. It's not like in the books or in-"

"Books? What books?" Max asked, folding her arms across her chest as she leaned her shoulder against the SUV to face Chloe directly, "What'd you get into this time?"

" _Dude_ , I don't spend all day at the shop just sitting there staring at the wall when we don't have customers. Ash brings these odd-ass books sometimes, things on ghosts and spirit phenomena. It got me kinda hooked so I read about that shit online when bidness is slow. Chill. I don't bring that shiz home with me, Maxarena."

"So you know about this type of stuff?" Max asked, sounding a little peeved but more in need of further information, as she held the camera up for both of them to look at. "Why did my camera do what it did, then?"

"Fuck if I know. Maybe it's because that is _the camera_ you used back then. You haven't exactly upgraded your Polaroid game, Caulfield."

"Ouch."

"Well, we're not rolling in dough but you are wielding some elderly tech. Polaroid has gone digital. There are even digital cameras with built-in printers now, ya know."

"Yeah, but those are like business card-sized photos. They're practically pointless for a serious photographer."

"Oooh, such a photo nerd-snob. Such retro. Very niche. So _classy_. Wow."

"Really? We're gonna do this now?"

"…Point taken," Chloe said, rubbing her cigarette out on the front driver's side tire as she pushed herself off the SUV.

"What're you doing?" Max asked, following Chloe as the taller girl proceeded to get back to climbing up the wreckage that blocked her vehicle from getting to the old Price residence, "We need to _go_. Like, home."

"Fuck that noise, man. We can get _proof of the supernatural_! Max, imagine how badass your project would be if it included pictures of _actual ghosts_? You'd be amazeballs-level famous!" Chloe whispered as Max met her at the top.

"Why are you whispering?" Max whispered back. "Why am _I_ whispering?"

"The fuck you think, why? Cuz ghosts, man. It's quiet here, but who knows where the fuck they are or how many. We'll head to my old digs and regroup. Nobody died _there_ , so we should be cool."

* * *

The Price residence for Chloe was like something from a dream. It was as though they had never left, and for a moment, the disorientation overwhelmed her. Then reality set in and she realized that sunlight was glowing through the window. _What the_ huh _…?_ Chloe thought as she looked directly ahead of her and saw it looked to be early morning, judging by how bright it was in the backyard.

"Max…?" Chloe asked for her girlfriend, but turned around to only find the closed front door behind her and an empty space where Max Caulfield should be. Pinching the bridge of her nose, Chloe squinted and let out a sigh of frustration, "Ugh, not this shit again. Hella lame. Fucking Max Caulfied, fucking time-space bullshittery-"

" _Chloe_?" a voice asked, squeaky in its youth but undeniable in who wielded it. Chloe watched as a 13 year-old Max Caulfield walked around the corner from the kitchen and stared at her wide-eyed, "Wowser. It's really you!"

"M-Max…? Wait, how do you know this is me? I mean _me_ me. Goddammit, I hate this shit."

"Chloe, it's _me_. Max from 2013. But…you're not how I remember," Teeny Max said, puzzlement splashed across her face as she tilted her head to one side, "You look…older… Oh my Dog, are you from the future?! Like, _past_ 2013?!"

"Dude, dude!" Chloe said, bracing her hands on Teeny Max's shoulders before the smaller hipster could hug her. _This shit is confusing enough as it is_ , Chloe thought as she felt a pang of guilt hit her in the chest when the tween Max's lip trembled slightly, "Chill, Maximo. Yes, I'm from the future. I'm a CyberDyne systems model 101, sent back in time to protect you."

"…A Terminator joke? Really?"

"Come with me if you hella want to live."

Both girls looked at each other, expressionless, before bursting into mutual giggle fits. Chloe's arms surrendered and she let the tween copy of her girlfriend nearly tackle her with the hug she received. _Max in any timeline is_ my _Max_ , Chloe thought as a warm smile crept across her face.

"Chloe, y-you made it… You made it from th-the storm…," Teeny Max said, looking up into Chloe's eyes with her own watering as tears began to fall, "I didn't-"

"You hella saved my life, _again_ , Maximus. That's… That's not why I'm here. I'm…I'm from 2017. We came back to Arcadia Bay to, uh, do some photography and time is all fucked up and there's ghosts and your camera…the camera I gave you…can somehow trap them. Uh, you with me so far?"

"…Kinda…?" Teeny Max offered in return, "But I don't remember any of this, you coming into 2008, and I'm pretty sure _you'd_ remember it. How…? Wait. You said ghosts? Chloe… What happened?"

"You don't need to know that, Max."

"Chloe…"

" _Max_. No, okay? No. What I need right now is to get back to _my_ Max Caulfield, the 2017 version. But…But I don't know how," Chloe said, scratching at her beanie, "And this is the second time this shit has happened. We were at the lighthouse last time so there's got to be a connection-"

"My time-traveling," Max said, her voice surprising resolute to Chloe. _Then again,_ Chloe thought as she saw the serious look on the extra-diminutive hipster, _This is Max from 2013 and she's already gone through an epic ton of shit,_ "I time-traveled at the lighthouse, and I time-traveled here. Maybe that's why…?"

"So what, we avoid every place you used your powers? Max, that's gonna be tricky when you think about it. _I_ don't even know how much you used them, and you only know so much. Fuck!"

"Maybe if you leave the house you'll wind up back where you should be?"

"It can't be that simple."

"How'd you get out of where you were before?"

"I… Uh, I left. Fuck, Max, even in pint-sized amounts you're still amazeballs," Chloe said with a grin as she kissed the tween brunette on her forehead. Giving a snickering Teeny Max a gracious bow, Chloe was about to turn around when the smaller girl grabbed her arm, "Uh, what gives?"

"If… If this moment isn't going to affect our timelines then you'll need…," Tween Max said with a focused expression on her face as she let go of Chloe's arm and went back into the kitchen, "You'll need _this_."

 _Dad's camera. Again. Max, you are hella on-point right now_ , Chloe thought as she took the camera with both hands and looked it over. It was weird to see it looking so much newer than it had the day she'd given it to Max, let alone how old it looked in what was her present day. Following Max to the shelving unit built into the wall of the living room, Chloe and Tween Max rummaged through the odds and ends of the 2008 Price family and found themselves four cartridges of film and a strap for Chloe to use. Putting the leather strap over her head, Chloe felt the camera gently bump against her chest as each pocket she had on her jeans held a single cartridge of film. _Four cartridges, eight shots each. In a town where God knows how many died. Fuck my life_ , Chloe thought as she checked herself while heading toward the door, Teeny Max stopping at the kitchen doorway. Turning to face the tinier, younger version of her girlfriend, Chloe blew Teeny Max a kiss and winked.

"See you in 9 years, nerd."

"Don't hit on me, grandma. I'm too young for you," Teeny Max cheekily teased as Chloe went out the door…

* * *

Max blinked, her eyes and mind not adjusting to what was laid out before her. The early morning light visible through the sliding door leading out to the backyard made her disorientation even stronger as she braced herself against the doorway and shook her head. _It was night when we came in. There's_ no way _that an entire night has passed, not one. So, where am I?_

 _More like…_ "When _am I?"_ Max Caulfield thought as she timidly looked upon her surroundings. The house interior was like no time had passed since she had last been in it, the morning after she and Chloe had broken into Principal Wells' office and the Blackwell swimming pool. Their evening debauchery had been the highlight of her week up to that point. _Then there was the kiss, which even now Chloe won't fess up to being a chickenshit,_ Max thought with a smirk, _Am I back then? Is that when I am? God, just thinking like that, 'when' instead of 'where'… Wowser…_

"This is all so surreal," Max said, figuring by the absence of noise or people that she had the place to herself, "But how am I supposed to get back-?"

"Uh, you use the door and go home, Max. Like I said, go…a-and don't come back," a voice said from around the corner leading to the garage.

The faint whirring of an electronic wheelchair in use pierced Max's heart and she brought a hand up to her mouth much like she had all those years ago, in another time, when the paralyzed Chloe of an alternate 2013 came rolling up from what Max assumed had been her room. _No. No, not this. God, Chloe, I'm so sorry. Sorry that you ended up like this. It…It was such a stupid choice, and I left you in an awful state. S-Slowly dying, my angel…my broken, broken angel..._ Max teared up and began to cry as Chloe approached, the grim look on the blonde's face disappearing before the sobbing presence of one Maxine Caulfield.

"…God, Max, you don't have to be so melodramatic. I'm mad and hurt, yeah, but…but I'll get over it. Look, I'm already over it," Alt Chloe said, smiling as hard as she could, trying to invoke something other than choking sobs from the brunette before her, "Look! See? Smiles for everybody… Wait. You're…You're different, and I don't mean just the clothes. I saw you, like, yesterday. You're…older. Max, what the fuck is going on?"

"C-Chloe, I'm so sorry!" Max cried out as she fell to her knees and wrapped her arms around the paralyzed girl's waist, her head in Alt Chloe's lap, "I…I failed you! I didn't mean to, but I was selfish! So stupidly fucking selfish! I-I just couldn't leave you like this, I couldn't, but you're still here…"

"Uh, yeah, dude. Of course I'm still going to be here. I only get so many miles to the gallon in this thing," Alt Chloe teased as she could only look down at the crying mess resting in her lap, "Max, seriously, chill and upon completion of the chilling _tell me_ what the fuck is going on. Okay?"

Max sniffled as her crying began to subside and she looked up at Alt Chloe from her spot on the blonde's lap. _So loving, so caring. That's my Chloe_ , Max thought with the faintest trace of a smile as she sniffled one more time before releasing her vice-like hold on the blonde. Sitting on her knees in front of the wheelchair-bound version of her girlfriend, Max wiped at her face and did the best she could to regain her composure. She had to be strong; not just for her Chloe, but this one as well. And _this_ Chloe was no joke, either. Frailty of the body had resulted in a sharpness of the mind and all its faculties.

"…What do you know about multiple realities?" Max asked, her facial expression and voice both full of pleading, hoping that this Chloe might understand where the conversation is headed. _This stuff, this science, is Chloe's forte. Not mine._

"You mean like String Theory? Multiverse? Parallel realities?" Alt Chloe asked, amused, "Dude, I'm aces when it comes to this sort of game. My intelligence is at, heh, _at Max._ "

"...Nerd."

"Dork."

The girls paused the banter as the weight of the situation caught up with them both. Alt Chloe dawned on the idea that the girl before her was _not_ the Max Caulfield of her time, yet it _was_ the Max who had visited her. Max, meanwhile, realized that she was back in the alternate 2013, but things were different. _I am here a day later than when I left. What the fuck is happening? Why did I start moving around in time again?_

"Okay, smartass. I…I _am_ the Max Caulfield that came and visited you, though. I'm just, um, from another time," Max said, getting to her feet as she held her arm, "It was 2013 for me, then. It's 2017 for me, now.

"I wondered what inspired the addition of tats and a sick new look," Alt Chloe said, a smirk on her face, "I approve, though I'd never picture _you_ for the tattoo and piercing game. I'm…I'm guessing your version of _me_ is to thank for this downward spiral into debauchery?"

"Well, it was more of a mutual decision thing, really…but yeah, she had a hand. She actually _did_ the tattooing. It's what she does for a living, actually."

"No shit?" Alt Chloe's eyes were wide with amazement, "I'm an artiste. _Nice_."

"Yeah, and you do night school three nights a week. You're working on your degree like I am. We're both in college," Max said, nodding eagerly, "And now, well, I'm _here_."

"Yeah. Um, how'd that happen? Tell me everything."

"Abbreviated version? 2013 year-old me equals time powers. 2017 year-old me comes back to Arcadia Bay and craziness ensues. Time travel, multiple realities, and _ghosts_."

" _Ghosts_?" Alt Chloe asked incredulously, "You're… Holy fuck, you're serious? Max, who did you fuck with to get such messed-up karma?"

"Time. Fate. Destiny," Max said, a hint of defeatism in her voice.

"Sounds about right, I guess," Alt Chloe replied, "And…And how do you deal with these 'ghosts'?"

" _Actual_ ghosts, Chloe. I'm not shitting you."

"I…I believe you, Max. Just don't expect me to go all Egon Spengler on you," Alt Chloe said, the look on her face telling Max that the paralyzed girl was waiting for an explanation. Walking over to the living room, Max took a seat on the couch and let her hair down to run her fingers through it. Minus pulling it up and the undercut, her hair still somewhat resembled the look she had from all those years ago – it was just an elongated bob instead of a plain one, "Start talkin', Caulfield."

"Okay. So, Chloe and I came back to Arcadia Bay. Shit goes down, ghosts and time travel, we get back together, and now I'm here."

"So, she was with you?"

"She was _right in front of me_ when she opened the door."

"…Maybe she didn't travel with you. Or is in 2017, or maybe some other time. If you're the focus of all this 'mass hysteria', then maybe she went some other time you traveled. Did you visit the house during any other time period?"

"…Yeah. 2008. The day… Yeah, I was here in 2008, too. Stuck in my 13-year-old body," Max said, opting to leave out that her father had originally been fated to die that day. _Oh, and I'm also responsible for your being paralyzed from the neck down. We still cool, Chlo? Ugh._

"'Kay, so maybe she's then. Heh, dealing with a tiny… _tinier_ Max Caulfield."

"Okay, so how do _I_ get back and find out?" Max asked, thankful that this Chloe had not pried any further. She did not have it in her to tell this Chloe that her father was supposed to be in a car wreck, not her.

"Um, what triggered your removal from the other timeline? The last one you _visited_ , not your own," Alt Chloe said pointedly, so as to not confuse Max any further than she already looked.

"I…I took a picture of a ghost, and it disappeared."

"Well, I don't see any ghosts here."

"Yeah. Yeah, so there's got to be another way. _There's another way, Chloe_!" Max said, gripping the blonde by her shoulders.

"Okay, Max. Chill a little. You'll crease the wrapping," Alt Chloe joked, smiling sweetly at the older version of her childhood best friend, "Dude, if you visited here, then maybe it's as simple as walking out the door. If you've visited this house before, in multiple realities and timelines, then maybe leaving the location will take you back."

"You sure?"

"Uh, _no_. This is quantum physics, quantum theory, and nearly every pseudoscience I can think of wrapped into 'Go through a door'. But it's all I've got. Just…Just try, Max," Alt Chloe said, watching Max turn to head toward the door, "Um, Max?"

"Yeah?" Max asked, peaking around the corner, "What's up?"

"…Th-Thanks for visiting me. Again and, um, before. It really was amazing to see you again," Alt Chloe said, blushing a little as she rolled up to watch Max leave.

"…I love you, Chloe Price," Max said, gently kissing a watery-eyed Alt Chloe on the forehead before turning around and heading out the door…

* * *

Chloe stepped outside of the house just in time to have her arms outstretched as Max caught her in a tight embrace, her lips smashing into the punk's with a feverous need for connection. Her momentary surprise passing, Chloe followed up Max's long kiss with one of her own, both of their eyes red-rimmed as tears threatened to overwhelm them both. Chloe had no clue what Max had encountered, wherever or _whenever_ she had gone, but the blue-haired girl had no doubt from the smaller girl's expression that it had been emotionally harrowing. Pulling back after the two of them started to get to the point of soft moans exiting the space between their briefly-parted lips and mingling tongues, Chloe held out her camera for Max to see.

"Max, you were weird as an 18 year-old in a 13 year-old's body. Cool, but definitely weird," Chloe said, a smirk on her face as she shook her head in a teasing, condescending way, "I scooped up some film, though, and maybe this camera will do the same thing since it _is_ the same as yours. Y'know, just newer."

"How much film did you get?" Max asked as she poured over Chloe's new acquisition, examining it in minute detail while mindlessly taking the offered film cartridges. Her focus shifting from the new camera slung around Chloe's neck to the added film, Max opened up her camera bag and examined her own stockpile of film, "Between the two of us we have 12 cartridges. Six a piece, meaning 48 shots a piece. If…If there's _really_ ghosts of _all_ the people that didn't make it through the storm-"

"There might not be, Max," Chloe said, a calming hand on the brunette's shoulder as she sighed in response, "Relax. Whatever this is, we'll deal with it."

"Still up for getting 'proof of the paranormal', Professor Price?"

"…At this point, that's hella much a bonus. I'd easily settle for the both of us getting the fuck out of Dodge," Chloe said, shaking her head, "But something tells me this place won't let just driving off be so damn easy. Plus, Max, look at your phone."

Max did as she was told and looked down at her phone as she powered it on. There was no longer a signal, but the internal clock was functioning. _It's eight in the morning? Why is it still dark out like it's nighttime? Is…Is this part of whatever is going on?_ Max thought as she just stared at the display for a moment, blinking only when the screen powered down as it resumed its standby mode. Pocketing her phone once more, Max looked over at Chloe, expectantly, and Chloe took her beanie off to run a hand through her shoulder-length cerulean hair as she thought things over. _When did I become the reliable one_? Chloe thought before grinning a little. _I_ am _reliable. To Max, anyway. We've had each other's backs every day since the storm. Still do. We can get through this. Just have to think._

"We could try to drive out of town and see what happens," Chloe offered, coming up with very little in the way of suggestions, "I mean, Max, that's pretty much the first thing we should attempt."

"Definitely," Max added, concurring with Chloe as she and her girlfriend headed toward the pile of house debris that she and Chloe had traversed to get to the old Price residence, "We will take the… Um, Chloe…?"

Chloe peered over the top of the debris as she climbed and her eyes widened at the sight. It was as if someone had fast-forwarded time around the SUV like a bubble. Rusted with tires long turned to useless, flat rubber, their transportation had become something that would have been more appropriate for the junkyard outside of town that Chloe had coined 'American Rust' all those years ago. Walking up to the car apprehensively, Chloe kicked at one of the tires and watched part of it fall away from age and wear that should not have happened. The windshield and windows were cracked and broken, the doors rusted shut. _What would have happened if we had been in the car while this was going on?_ Chloe asked herself as she felt the abrasiveness of the rusty surface against her fingertips from running her hand along the SUV's exterior. _Would we have aged, too? Would none of this had happened if we hadn't gone to…wherever it was we went?_

"This is too creepy," Max said, though instinctively, she pulled out her Canon camera and snapped a shot of the wreckage that had been their ride.

"...And yet you're taking a picture," Chloe half-spat out, not intending to sound as irritated as she had. Realizing what she was doing, Max's head bent down in guilt as she put her camera away while Chloe walked around the SUV to hold her, "Dude, I'm…I'm sorry. It's just… Are we going to actually make it out of here, Max? Is… Was _whatever_ is doing all of this waiting for us to come back all this time?"

Both girls deciding the last question seemed relatively unanswerable, Chloe and Max left the odd wreckage of their SUV behind as they walked down the street they had driven through. The darkness pervading the entire area to the point of their cameras' lights barely piercing the black veil that seemed to be drawn over the town, the two girls found themselves back at the intersection that led to either the business area where Two Whales had been or the road which eventually ended at Blackwell Academy.

"Which way do we… Oh, _Max_ …," Chloe said, looking past Max and down toward where the Two Whales had once been, "Man, don't look to your right."

"Huh?" Max asked, having spaced out for a moment as she did exactly what Chloe had told her not to and looked to her right.

Max brought a hand to her mouth at what was slowly approaching them. _No. No, he can't be dead. That…_

 _Warren…_

In life, Warren Graham had been a cheerful teenage boy whose love for Max had gone unrequited. In death, he approached her with a hungry expression and grasping hands. Shambling forth, the spectral Warren Graham gazed at Max with a partly charred visage. _Joyce had told me that he pushed her out of the building just before it caught fire, but… Oh, Warren. You didn't deserve this_ , Max thought, her hands shaking and fumbling as the ghost of her friend continued to advance toward her and Chloe, _I…I have t-to help you, somehow. Relieve you of all this…all this pain…_

The ear-piercing shriek that emanated from his over-extended mouth as he pointed a ghostly, vaporous finger at Max had both girls wincing as they covered their ears. Max remembered the alternate reality where she had gone to the diner, stopped the fire from spreading. _By saving Chloe, I doomed so many_ , Max thought before looking over to see Chloe standing next to her, _…But I made my decision, and I_ won't _go back…even if I could…_ Struggling with her trembling hands to bring the viewfinder up to eye level, Max felt hot tears run down her cheeks and the view of Warren's ghastly form blurred before the camera was gently pushed down by a blue-nailed hand.

"Chloe…?" Max asked, her grip on the Polaroid camera so weak that her girlfriend easily took it from her, "Chloe, I have to stop this…stop _him_."

"I… No, Max. I'll do it," Chloe said as she gave the brunette a sidelong glance while holding the camera up to take a shot, "Look how much you're crying. You'd be a wreck if you did this, even if…even if he goes to a better place afterwards. No, this one I'll do. I _am_ your faithful sidekick. Don't forget that."

Chloe angled the viewfinder to try and get a centered shot of Warren's ghost, the specter seemingly understanding to an extent as to what she was up to; vanishing for a moment, Warren reappeared right behind Max and tried to wrap his lifeless arms around the smaller girl only to cringe and wail in despair as Chloe got off a shot from the Polaroid camera. The angle was not great, and she only managed to get him partly in the picture, but it had been enough that he reeled back a little so that Max could run over to defensively stand behind Chloe. Letting the photo she had just taken fall to the pavement, Chloe centered Warren in the viewfinder only to watch him disappear again.

"Ugh, you little fucker…," Chloe mumbled through gritted teeth, "Stop playing peek-a-boo and stay in one shot. We're trying to help you, dumbass."

As though in response, Warren appeared _right in front of Chloe_ , reaching through her abdomen with his ghostly arm as his partly burned face hissed at her mere inches away. Chloe felt a knot of iciness inside of her, as though she were freezing from the inside where the apparition was reaching through her. _Reaching through me…to Max…_ , Chloe thought desperately as she looked over her shoulder to see that Warren's fingertips were sunk into Max's chest and the color was starting to fade from her cheeks. _No…No, not Max. You… Fuck you, Waldo_!

Chloe took the shot close up, pointing the camera at Warren's face without looking through the viewfinder. The blinding flash was bad enough as it made her squint, but the sudden release of his arm from her insides was what she imagined an icicle would feel like if it were first put _in_ your body and then pulled _out_. She heard Max gasp and Chloe felt relief flood through her as she watched the Warren ghost reel backwards. Looking through the viewfinder again, lining up the shot like her father had taught her, Chloe wordlessly took one final picture of Warren Graham before he fizzled out like a photograph being burned from the inside. Panting, her hand on her abs where she had felt the iciness, Chloe winced with each breath as it felt like her lungs were air conditioning units. Turning to see how Max was, Chloe knelt down when she saw an unconscious Max crumpled to the ground.

"Max?" Chloe asked as she nudged her girlfriend. Nothing. "Max?!"

" _Max!"_

* * *

 _Maxine Caulfield wandered through what felt to her like a dream. Clouds rolled past overhead at a speed that was just too fast to be normal, and the Sun and Moon seemed to be having a race as day and night bled together into an eternal sunset. Standing on the same street she had known since she was a little kid, Max looked over and saw the Price household. It seemed odd, out of focus, like everything else around her. Even the street she stood on seemed almost intangible._

" _What the fuck is happening now?" Max asked herself aloud, looking down at her feet only to snap her head up at the sound of approaching footsteps coming from behind. Turning, Max saw a shape begin to coalesce a short distance ahead of where she was facing, boots turning into long legs with some definite thigh game. Jean shorts were soon joined with a white shirt and a flannel top, blonde hair and a feather earring that froze Max in place as the rest of her visitor manifested and smiled._

 _Rachel Amber seemed to look at her with a sad, but kind, expression as she walked up to Max and hugged the young photographer. Not knowing what else to do, Max reciprocated the gesture before involuntarily letting go as she took a few steps back and reached into her bag for…for…_

" _Chloe's got my camera," Max mumbled to herself, raising her phone up to take a picture, "Maybe this'll-"_

 _"Chillax, Maxima," Rachel said with an amused giggle, "I'm not_ that _kind of ghostie. Besides, you need the Polaroid to do anything to the spooks and ghoulies in Arcadia Bay."_

" _Okay…," Max said, following Rachel to a bus stop where there was a bench. Tentatively taking a seat next to the girl, Max looked at Rachel with a stupefied expression that she realized she had when Rachel eyed her quizzically, "Um, sorry. I just…I never saw you in-person before. You really_ are _beautiful."_

 _"D'awww," Rachel said, patting Max on the shoulder, "Well, I think you're fucking adorable. You're just like Chloe said you were, sweet and shy as fuck. If…If I were still alive, she'd have a fight on her hands for you. Plus, I'm a Leo, and I don't mess."_

" _Rachel, um, why am I…? Where am I…?"_

 _"This is…This is a pit stop, kinda," Rachel said, twiddling her thumbs as she looked down at her lap pensively, "A kinda in-between for the living world and what comes after-"_

" _OMIGOSH, I'm_ dead _?" Max asked, eyes wide open. She swore she was breathing hard, or at least it was the semblance of breathing to her, "Nonono, this can't-!"_

 _"You're not dead, Max!_ Chill. _Please?" Rachel said, sliding over to sit beside the brunette as she wrapped an arm around the shaking girl's shoulders, "Dude, you're just knocked the fuck out. You're here… Well, I'm not sure why, but I think it has to do partly with all the shit you pulled back around when…when you found me…and some of it might have to-"_

"…Max…!" _an echoey voice called out from seemingly nowhere, but Max would know the person behind that voice anywhere._ Chloe, _Max thought as she spun around in her seat to try and find the source._

" _Chloe?" Max called out in return, standing up as she shrugged Rachel's arm off of her, "Chloe, where are you?"_

"… _Max_!..." _Chloe's voice rang out again, and the world around Max seemed to flicker and shake a little as she walked toward the general area where the voice seemed to be emanating from,_ "MAX!"

" _Chloe, I'm… I'm here!"_ _Max cried out, lip trembling and she felt a hand on her shoulder…_

* * *

Turning, Max found herself disoriented as she was suddenly lying down on the cold pavement, Chloe shaking her by the shoulder almost uncontrollably until the sobbing blue-haired girl realized that her girlfriend was awake. Max gasped for air instinctively when Chloe grabbed her and pulled her in for a massive bear hug, arms so tight that the exhale the brunette let out was forceful. The vision - _Another nightmare?,_ Max thought – had felt so real to Max that it was as though she had actually been there. _Rachel… She wanted to tell me something, something that connected my powers from that week with what was…what was…_

"Max, are you okay?" Chloe asked, pulling Max out of the hug to look her girlfriend in the eyes, "You were…You were out of it for a bit."

"I… Uh, I think I'm okay now. Yeah," Max said as she absently patted herself down, "I'm still here. B-But I was somewhere else, too. And… Oh, Chloe, I saw her."

"Who?"

"Rachel Amber," Max said, it now her turn to grip onto Chloe as she latched onto the falling arms with her small hands, sliding down Chloe's forearms to intertwine their fingers, "Chloe, _all this_ is partly because of what we did…but something else is going on, I think."

 **(EDIT - August 14. See my Tumblr regarding my status writing LiS fanfic)**

 **Author's Note –**

 **Well, here we are. Chapter 2.**

 **It's a little shorter than the entry, but I felt that might be the case when I started this installment up. There's always the need to build up at the beginning, to infuse life into a creation, and that's what the intro chapter was for. Reintroduce Max and Chloe from my writing style, but also to reintroduce myself to writing more than just ideas for future comic entries for What If? This is me getting back into the swing of things, but at a pace that is more accommodating of my health and what's going on in my life.**

 **I hope you enjoyed the return of Rachel Amber, and** _ **don't**_ **think that it's the last you'll see of her. This is a ghost story, but it's also an adventure and not every spook, specter, or ghost Max and Chloe encounter will be a baddie. So just take that in and think on that as the story progresses.**

 **See you all in Chapter 3!**

 **Stay Hella, Cinnamon Rolls :)**

 **PS – Betcha thought there was gonna be William as a ghost at the house, didn't ya? Well, Chloe doesn't deserve that trauma, but don't think William won't make an appearance ;)**


	3. Chapter 3

" **O Death" from** _ **Until Dawn**_

Max watched Chloe as the taller girl walked a little further ahead of her, the silence between them stifling Max since she had told her girlfriend about the vision of speaking with a long-dead Rachel Amber. She wanted to shout at Chloe, wanted to yell, but Max was more afraid of disturbing Chloe's mood than she already had. Chloe had just stared at her after Max had explained what happened with a deadpan expression and said "Let's go" before heading off down the street, presently separated a few paces away. They had found their way through town by taking side roads and alleyways, being as frugal with their limited Polaroid film as they could be. Only one ghost had been in need of being shot, a wandering businesswoman from the town square that had seemed relentless in her pursuit of them. Chloe had taken two shots, whereas Max had only taken one before the specter had faded away in a combination of static and film burn. _Where do they all go?_ Max wondered as she followed Chloe in a pensive silence. _What happens to those we snap photos of? Do they 'move on', or do they just cease to be? Hold up, Max. Now is not the time to get all existential – we need… I need to get Chloe out of here. If what's going on has something to do with October of 2013 then she can't stay here any longer than we absolutely have to._ So caught up in her thoughts, Max did not notice that Chloe had stopped until she nearly bumped into the taller girl.

"C-Chloe…? Everything…Everything okay?" Max asked, tucking some loose strands of hair behind her ear as the other girl looked at her from over her tattooed shoulder, jacket tied around her waist, before turning to face the brunette.

"Before, when you said you saw a-and spoke with Rachel, you were hella serious," Chloe said rather than asked.

"Chloe, do you think I would _lie_ about something like that? Is that why you've been all quiet since I said it," Max said, a look of disbelief on her face that was screwed up into one of mild frustration when the punk scratched at her beanie like she did when embarrassed, "I have no reason to lie-"

"No! No, I don't think you're lying to me about…about her. It's just that I don't get it. Rachel's…," Chloe said, spinning back around as she ripped her beanie off her head and gripped it tightly in one hand, knuckles turning white with force, before she came back around to come within inches of Max's face with her own, "Why you? Why…Why couldn't it have been _me_? I-I searched for her _so_ _hard_ , wanted her back so bad. Fuck, Max, we _dug up her grave_ _and left it for Jeffershit to cover back up_. She never even got a proper burial! Her body was…was probably swallowed up in the storm like the rest of this motherfucking town! For all we know, what you saw could've just all been in your head and she's totally a ghost like the rest of this goddamn town!"

Chloe spun back around and stomped off for a bit, the sounds of her crying drawing Max to her as she held her sobbing girlfriend in her arms when she came up from behind. Chloe fought at first, wriggled in Max's grip, but eventually just sagged into the embrace and let the tears come freely. Max knew that Rachel had been there for Chloe when she had not; Max underestimated how raw Chloe's feelings still remained when it came to Rachel. _Wowser. Years later and Chloe's still just as raw when it comes to Rachel as she had been when we first got back together that day in the parking lot. Damn. Maybe I shouldn't have said anything_. Hugging Chloe even more tightly from behind, Max wound her arms around the other girl's waist and mentally sighed a bit in relief when the other girl's fingers wove into hers after a few moments.

Max and Chloe stood there like that for a few minutes; ghosts, time travel, and alternate realities forgotten in a mix of grief and old loneliness. If Max could have given Chloe her vision of Rachel she would have, and if Max had offered it to Chloe the blue-haired punk would have certainly taken it. Their brief foray away from the present dangers and uncertainties of what had once been Arcadia Bay, however, did not cease to be simply because they were grieving. Pulling apart from one another at the sound of wailing from just beyond the block ahead of them, Max took Chloe by the hand and led the girl down one of the many side roads they had been utilizing. Climbing over and through various debris and clutter, the night sky seeming endless in the way it shrouded everything in darkness, Max's smartphone camera flash was a small beacon of light as it helped them forge ahead.

"Max… Where are we going?" Chloe asked, her first words not associated with anything Rachel-related since Max had told her what happened.

"The town is too dangerous, a-and we need some place where we can rest," Max replied, the shakiness in her voice giving away the uncertainty she felt about their destination.

"Okay. Still didn't answer the question."

"B-Blackwell. We're going to Blackwell," Max said, looking over her shoulder to see the cringe on Chloe's face, "It didn't even look like it had been touched when we drove through after the storm. Maybe we'll get lucky and there won't be anything there except abandoned dorms and classrooms…"

"You know you _totally_ just jinxed us, right?" Chloe asked, her quip a little lighthearted as she strained to smirk.

"Shut it, smartass," Max replied, a smirk on her own face before she got on her tip-toes to kiss Chloe's cheek and take her girlfriend's hand, "C'mon. We need to get moving again."

* * *

Chloe couldn't see through the forest and it bugged her; it was as though there was a static around the town, like white noise surrounding every inch of Arcadia Bay and the local touristy bullshit. _This is so hella weird. I could see through the tree line before, but now it's just the tree line itself and some grayish void. Max, how the fuck are we going to get out of here?_ Stopping her progress toward Blackwell Academy, the school just within sight as they crested the hill upon which it sat, Chloe let go of Max's hand and turned on her own camera's light. Hearing Max come up next to her in the dimness of night, Chloe looked over at her girlfriend as Max's face shone in the camera's brilliance from proximity.

"Chlo, what are you doing?" Max asked, her small hand latching on to the jacket tied around Chloe's waist, "We need to get going before more of my bad karma catches up with us."  
"Dude, this is just like before. Not on you," Chloe replied before jerking her chin in the direction of the trees, "I wonder what would happen if we tried to enter that murky gray shit. Would we, like, enter a void space? Oblivion? Or would we just pop the proverbial bubble?"

"What do you mean?"

"It's…ugh, this would be so much easier if you'd been better at math and science, babe. It's like we're stuck within a pocket universe filled with bits and pieces of alternate realities. But what's creating it? What _created_ this situation?"

"My powers-"

"We _assume_ that, dude, but it may not be the case. This was the sight of some wicked mojo, Max, like scientifically-impossible shit. I'm just sayin'… We can't rule out that you having those bizarro time powers years ago may _not_ be all that's in play here."

Chloe watched as Max tried to mull over what she had said and placed a comforting hand on the smaller girl's shoulder. _I shouldn't have freaked on Max about her Rachel vision. I… I just wish I could've seen her. One last time._ Taking Max's hand, Chloe took the lead herself as they continued their journey toward Blackwell Academy. The looming clouds and darkness around them yielded no sign of life or light, the pitch quality to their surroundings almost seeming to swallow up the small illumination emanating from their phones. Switching her own phone off, Chloe figured that if they didn't know how long they might be here that they should probably try to conserve what power their phones have. As they approached the campus parking lot, both girls felt a tingling sensation like every inch of their skin was covered in gooseflesh.

"Hella strange, being back here," Chloe observed, looking at the derelict cars scattered about the parking lot, "It's like the storm didn't even touch this place."

"Figures Black _hell_ would get a reprieve from Armageddon…," Max grumbled as she switched off her phone when the sky above yielded a pale grey glow, "Looks like it's what passes for daytime. We'd best-"

"Conserve our powah. Yeah, I already figured that," Chloe said, cutting Max off as the phone lighting their way was switched off, "Such a surreal kind of glow, coming from the clouds. Almost peaceful."

" _Now_ who's jinxing us?" Max asked, elbowing Chloe with a little jab in the side.

"Ouch. I'm fragile, so doooon't," Chloe teased in response, feigning serious injury.

Watching Max roll her eyes and chuckle a little did a lot to ease Chloe's nerves as they moved from the parking lot to the quad in front of the school. Devoid of any people, it felt to Chloe like walking in a graveyard. The truth of it was that while she was putting on a strong front, that's all it was. A front, a false calm. She was terrified of what they would find behind every corner, through every doorway they had taken to get to this point. Still, Blackwell _did_ have some good memories to it.

 _Boys or Girls?_

 _Girls, of course._

 _Girls? Ooh-la-la._

 _I'm never leaving you._

 _And I haven't,_ Chloe thought as she and Max stood motionless by the fountain, the ghost of a student coming from the breezeway entrance that led to the dormitory. Chloe's eyes flickered to Max and took a slight relief in that whoever the deceased was, they weren't someone that Max had known personally. Chloe still cringed a bit at the faint pout on her girlfriend's face as she lifted up her Polaroid camera to take the shot.

"G-Gotta get closer, to be more effective," Max muttered as she moved forward on shaky legs, "S-Stay… Stay back, Chloe. I got this."

"…Like hell you do," Chloe said, lowering Max's camera down with her free hand as she lined up a shot herself, "Last thing you need…is to do this to someone you know again."

"Chloe," Max said, shrugging off Chloe's hand as she again lined up her viewfinder with the approaching ghost, their presence now detected, "We're both more than likely to do this to people we know! You think this is going to be easy on a stranger? We…We don't know what happens to them!"

Both girls took a shot at the ghost, their combined efforts fizzling the specter out in a haze of mist as it seemed to dissolve like burnt film. As they lowered their cameras, however, Chloe looked at Max and saw the tear running down her girlfriend's left cheek. Brushing it aside, Chloe frowned when Max stepped away a little.

"We-We did this to Warren, Chloe. Who knows if he's…at peace, or whatever. Fizzled him out, snuffed him. He w-was dead and wandering around as a ghost and now he's-" Max stuttered out, her shoulders beginning to tremble as she fought back tears.

"Max, I'm sorry that we had to do that, but _we had to._ You remember how it felt being touched by these things? It's like slowly dying, cold and empty. How easy do you think it was for me, seeing a dead version of you? Do you think I'm taking this easy? Fuck, Max, I'm a goddamn mess!" Chloe retorted, tears rolling down her own cheeks as she remembered the haunting visage of Max's lifeless face, "You had to deal with another version of me, right? How do you think _you_ managed that?"

"I-I did what I had to. To survive," Max said, wiping her face.

"And nothing's fuckin' changed. We're in this to win it, Max. To _live_. We're not going after these things intentionally, taking them wherever-the-fuck they go. We're _fighting for our lives_."

* * *

Max nodded, thin-lipped, and surveyed the rest of the grounds carefully with Chloe in tow. She felt like they had no other option but Blackwell. Max knew that wasn't the case – there was a whole town, after all. It just seemed to resonate in her head that maybe they could be safe _somewhere_ without the fear of ghosts or death. _To think this all started with just some damn photo project. I just_ had _to come back here and revisit all these old memories, ancient battlescars. I'm tired, Chloe. I'm just so damn tired._ Finding no ghosts or anything else suspicious around them, the two women stood alone in the dormitory grounds for a moment before Max just dropped to the ground and laid there.

"Tired. Hungry. Affection. Gimme," Max said, lifting her arms up as Chloe laid down beside her and the two hugged in the grassy lawn, "I think that time has affected this place, too. It's too pristine. Unless there's a ghost lawn mower and ghost hedge trimmer, we inadvertently stepped into another alternate reality."

"Shh, babe. Just shush," Chloe said, stroking her partner's hair as she gave her a few little kisses on her forehead and freckled nose, "Let's just take a moment to chill and be with each other. We'll figure out this personal hell in a couple minutes, okay?"

"Mm'kay," Max said, burying her face into Chloe's shirt as she let herself be held tighter by the blue-haired punk, "Chloe…?"

"Yo?"

"I love you."

"Love ya, too, babe. I love you."

"Do you…? Do you think we'll ever-?" Max asked, her voice shaky before she calmed as Chloe stroked her hair again. So close to Chloe's chest, it was the beating of her lover's heart that soothed Max's heightening anxiety and worrisome mood. _We'll get through this. We'll get through it, Chloe, I swear to Dog._

"Coast clear?" Chloe asked Max as her partner opened the door to the dormitory and looked up the stairway for signs of ghosts. _I still can't believe it. We're_ actual _ghostbusters, minus the cool-as-fuck toys, "_ Max?"

"No signs of spiritual hauntings or paranormal phenomena in this stairway, at least. God only knows what's behind those doors, however," Max said, returning from the stairway, "Let's go. There should be film in my room. Cartridges of the stuff."

Having carefully made their way up the stairs, Max opened the door to her floor and the women were greeted with an image of Max's floor with static seeming to appear in the air. Cautiously putting a hand out toward the open doorway, Max felt Chloe yank her back and both women landed on their asses. Turning to look at Chloe with surprise and mild admonishment, the terror on her partner's face gave Max pause. _She was worried I'd disappear. God, Max, what the fuck were you thinking, sticking your hand in that weird static space?_ Getting to her feet and helping Chloe up as she did so, Max held onto Chloe and hugged the other woman tightly.

"I was careless…stupid… I'm sorry, Chloe. Didn't mean to scare you like that. Promise."

"…Max, we don't know what'll happen if we go in there. Maybe we should try to get to your floor another way. The roof?" Chloe suggested, her words a little shaky as she put a hand on her Polaroid camera.

"Well, we could try climbing onto the boys' dorm," Max said, remembering how the campus was laid out, "It's about a one story drop, but we could access my floor by getting on the roof of the building, maybe?"

Closing the door to her floor, feeling it tug away from her like there was a vacuum sucking the door back into place, Max shivered for a second before carefully making her way up the stairs with Chloe in tow behind her. Reaching the door to the roof, Max noticed something odd coming from the other side – the sound of rainfall. _Rain? It rains here? The sky… Well, it wasn't clear, but it_ looked _like there was some kind of sunlight or whatever._ Putting her ear to the door, Max could hear the rain more clearly and the sound of people in the distance. Before she could react, the door gave way to her weight and Max found herself out on the rooftop with the door slamming shut in Chloe's face. Looking around, Max froze when she saw a lone figure standing on the rooftop's edge. _Kate._

"No," Max said, shaking her head, " _No_ , I saved you, Kate. I _saved_ you. You're not dead. Y-You c-can't be. You got out of town. You sent me postcards. We Skype chat-"

"You might have saved _her_ , but you weren't able to save me," Ghost Kate said as she turned around, her eye sockets hollow with bloody tears rolling down her cheeks. Her dress and blouse were marred with blood, "You can't save _everyone_ , Max. You're not _God_ , no matter how much you tried to play at one…"

"Kate, I've only ever wanted you to be-"

"Please, Max. Don't lie to me, or to yourself. You _never_ really cared about me at all. You're just like everyone else, except you fooled yourself into thinking you're a good person."

"…That's not true, and I will _always_ care," Max said, inching forward a couple steps. The solidity of Kate's ghost was horrifying in its detail. It was as though the spirit had been made flesh to torment Max with its lividity, "Kate, you don't have to do this…"

"But I _want_ to, Max. I want to! I'm tired of being bullied all the time," Kate said as the rain and continued, "It's time someone showed you that you're not perfect."

"I know I'm not-"

Max darted away as Kate's ghost lunged at her suddenly, the ghost falling onto her knees as she missed by inches. _I could feel her coldness, her hatred. She_ is _Kate, but not the one I saved. Is this place an…an alternate timeline where I couldn't talk Kate down? Has her ghost been suffering here for years?_ Max rolled on the roof to dodge another attack from the ghost of her dead friend, Kate hissing as she had yet again been denied her vengeance. Disappearing entirely, Kate's lingering words of "I hate you, Max. You didn't even try…" echoed through the air as Max slowly turned around to try and get a sight of the specter. Pulling out her Polaroid camera, Max looked in the viewfinder and snapped a shot just as Kate's ghost came lunging at her once more…

* * *

Chloe slammed her shoulder hard into the roof access door, wincing as the third time had decidedly _not_ been the charm. Dropping down to sit on her ass against the railing, Chloe looked up at the door and felt like it was looming over her. Flipping the door off, Chloe ripped her beanie off her head and scratched at her hair. She wished herself and Max had never come back to Arcadia Bay, that she had used her "veto power" to shut down Max's idea. _She'd been hella mad if I did that, though,_ Chloe thought as she peered up at the illuminated exit sign, _I mean, she would get over it. But there'd be this tiny grudge. I could've withstood it. Why didn't I say no? Why did I go along with this?_

"Geez, Chlo, I knew you smoked up here sometimes but you look years older. How hard you putting them packs away, girl?" A familiar voice asked as Chloe's eyes opened wide. Turning her head in the direction of the voice, she watched in a mixture of astonishment and horror as Rachel Amber walked up the stairs to sit next to her.

She felt real as a hand was laid over both of hers, a friendly touch. That's all they had ever really been, though at a time Chloe had thought she might want more. _I hella crushed on her, on you, Rach._ Chloe placed a hand on Rachel's face and felt how real it was, but also how cool her friend felt. Not like the icy touch of the ghosts she and Max had encountered thus far, Rachel felt almost…soothing.

"You're dead," Chloe said, a statement of fact rather than a question, "I-I wanted to come back to try and find your…find your…"

"My remains," Rachel said, Chloe melting inside a little at the deep pang of sadness in her friend's voice, "I know you did. I know. Dude, this is such bullshit. Did you know that I die in _every_ timeline? Like, _snip!_ Severed from life at the exact moment infinitely. Lame."

"I-I'm so s-sorry, Rach," Chloe sobbed, pulling her knees up to her chest like she had five years ago when she and Max had found Rachel.

"Honey… Chloe, that's not why I'm here. You don't need to apologize. You need to be strong, stay strong. For her. For Max," Rachel said, Chloe looking at the door as Rachel did, "She's fighting for her life not just against those who didn't make it. She's also fighting herself, her insecurities and worst fears."

"Wha…? What are you talking about?" Chloe asked, puzzled by the way Rachel had explained things, "She's fighting _herself_? What?"

"Look, I can't stay any longer," Rachel said, starting to fade before Chloe's eyes. The blonde kissed Chloe's cheek and stroked it gently as her smile began to fade as well, "I'm glad you found happiness, babe. You sure as hell needed it, and you couldn't get _that_ kind of happy from me. I'll be watching over you. Always…"

With that, Rachel faded into nothingness and Chloe felt the tears streaming down her face cease; it felt to her as though a long overdue burden had been lifted. _I finally got to talk to Rachel again, but she ended up finding me. Fate screwed you over hella hard, bud._ Chloe got to her feet and brushed the dust off her ass as she started to kick at the door, unrelenting now more than ever to get to Max and save her.

* * *

"Chloe…?" Max asked curiously, not taking her eyes off of Kate's ghost as she heard someone banging against the roof access door from inside.

"She can't help you, Max. She never could!" Kate let out shrilly, though there was a hint of uncertainty in her ghostly voice before she cried out in pain when Max took the moment of distraction to take a shot with her Polaroid camera, "Stop it! Stop fighting me!"

Max dodged Kate's attack yet again, and realized something. Kate was not really trying to get her; her attacks were easily readable and she spent more time talking than attacking. _Is she biding her time, waiting for something to happen? She's mad, angry; I get that. If everything she's been saying is true, she's been trapped up here for five years, in this limbo world. Snapping her photo over and over won't solve that._ It was then that Max thought on Kate's last words – "Stop fighting me" – and put her camera back in its bag. Kate noticed the move and it almost looked to Max like the other girl might cry.

"What are you going to do now, Max? Talk me off the edge? It's _too late_ for that!"

"Come to me, all you who are weary, and I will give you rest," Max said, opening her arms out to embrace the ghost of her dead friend, "I might not have saved you before, Kate, but I _can_ save you now."

Max watched as Kate ceased everything, her violent attitude and attacks, and simply stood in the middle of the rooftop as tears began to form from where her eyes had reappeared. Scared of what this might mean, hugging an apparition when the last time she had touched one felt like dying, Max inhaled and exhaled forcefully before wrapping her arms around Kate. Instead of an icy chill, the feeling of life being drained from her, however, there was a warmth as the rain stopped and the sky cleared back to its bright, cloudy state. _Kate feels warm, not icy. She's full of light and love, just like she always has been._ Latching onto her friend even more tightly, Max sobbed a little as Kate hugged her back and cried as well.

"I'm so sorry, Max," Kate cried out, the emotion in her voice welling up as she began to sob, "I-I've been up here for _so long_. I just want to rest, that's all. That's all."

"Now you can," Max said, pulling back to wipe at the tears on her friend's face, "The me who couldn't save you… I don't know that Max Caulfield. I know, however, that I will always find a way to save my precious Kate."

Feeling Kate begin to fade away in her arms, Max took a step back and watched as her friend's spirit began to brighten before fading away. Looking down at the ground where Kate had stood, Max picked up Kate's cross necklace and put it on. She did not know what she believed in when it came to religion, but she _did_ believe in her friend and the overwhelming love that poured out from her. Kneeling on the roof, Max wiped her eyes clear as the roof door finally opened and Chloe came sprinting toward her, sliding onto the roof and hugging her partner tightly as Max took in the warmth of Chloe's love for her.

"You okay?" Chloe asked, two simple words conveying so much meaning as she turned Max around and pelted her face with little kisses, "I missed you, needed you. Max, I met Rachel. She told me to be strong. For you. …I'm hella ready."

"It was Kate up here, on the roof. A Kate I wasn't able to save," Max confessed as she laid her head against Chloe's chest, "But I did save her. Both in our timeline and this screwy one. I know she's alive back in our reality, but the Kate here… Chloe, I think something is keeping these spirits we keep seeing from passing on. We have to find it, stop it."

"We hella will," Chloe said as she helped Max to her feet while getting up herself, "First, let's get to your dorm room. We need supplies, and hopefully, a safe place to crash."

"Sounds like a plan. Whatever would I do without my partner-in-crime?"

"You'd be _so_ fucked without me."

"Lame. I can handle things by myself, y'know."

"Yeah," Chloe admitted, taking Max's hand, "But you don't have to."

"I know. That makes me happy."

 **Author's Note -**

 **So I had to get this chapter out of the way before I started to work on Wyrd Ways, Strange Days. That, and I _really_ want to continue this story as well. What'll likely happen is one week you'll get Fatal Instant and the next you'll get Wyrd Ways, Strange Days. I think that's pretty decent and since the installment sizes are between 4,000 words and 5,000 words the likelihood of me getting them to you on my own deadline is much greater. That said...**

 **We return. To the horror.**

 **HORROR!**

 **lol, I feel like this one'll contain drama just like any of my other stories. Taking into account that this limbo world our Gaynamic Duo find themselves in is filled ( _filled!_ ) with alternate realities and different takes based off the story choices, there's bound to be some drama over what did or didn't happen. I'm going to try and make sure it doesn't turn into angst, but we'll just have to see. A little angst isn't bad, but I'm done with angst-ridden stories.**

 **Hope you enjoy this return to Arcadia Bay, and I'll see you all later!**

 **Stay hella, Cinnamon Rolls!**


	4. Chapter 4

**"I Tried To Change The World" by Jetta**

Chloe descended first, landing on the roof of the boy's dorm with all fours like a cat. Wincing as she rotated her wrists and shifted her feet in those black combat boots after she had stood up, Chloe held out her arms for Max to jump into. They both knew that while Max had been taking fitness classes that she was still relatively small in comparison to the blue-haired tattoo artist. The sky had retained its otherworldly hue, glowing like the sun but minus a visible source of the light. Chloe noted to herself that it was as though there was neither "day" or "night", but rather places in the town and surrounding area of this limbo world that were statically fixed on certain times.

"C'mon, hippie," Chloe said, returning her attention to Max as the other woman stood at the roof's edge, "I'll catch ya."

"C-Chloe, I dunno about this," Max stammered out, shaken by her experience with Kate and the overall idea of jumping from the roof. Flashbacks to when she had saved Kate played over in her mind as she backed up against the brick wall, "Wowser. Isn't there somewhere I could climb down?"

"Quit being a chicken and _come on_! We need to get to investigatin', Sherlock," Chloe teased, chuckling when Max gave her a dirty look and the middle finger, "Max. I swear I will do my hella damnedest to catch you. Take a leap of faith, for me?"

"That is _so_ not fair."

"Life's unfair. Now jump, goddammit! Max, babe, just jump-!"

Chloe was nearly caught off-guard when Max finally descended from the roof, letting herself drop like a deadweight rather than the action hero-esque leap Chloe had taken. _Fuck, I'm not gonna catch her!_ Chloe thought, jumping forward just in time to catch the photographer before she would have landed. _Oh! Oh, thank fucking God! Damn it, Max. You would've broken your fucking legs, dropping like that!_

"Don't drop like that, dude!" Chloe admonished her partner as she helped a wide-eyed Max to her feet, "You could've seriously hurt yourself. Tuck an' roll, babe. Tuck an' roll."

"I-I made it…," Max said, her face a mask of shock as she looked up to where she had stood and back to Chloe, "Don't wanna do that again."

"Well, hopefully we won't hafta. Now c'mon. Let's get into your room."

Sliding open a window that led to a hallway which conjoined sections of the girls' dormitory, Chloe let Max take the lead as they walked through the building in search of Max's room. The air was still and dust was visible through light emanating from the windows. It was exactly like how it had been when they first reached Blackwell – time stood still in this place. _At least for now_ , Chloe thought as she bumped into Max's back.

"Dude, what the-?" Chloe asked, rubbing her nose as it'd hit the crown of Max's head.

"I'm…I'm scared, Chlo. What happens when I open this door? More time-reality bullshit craziness?" Max asked, turning to look at Chloe with one hand on the doorknob, "I don't want to get separated again."

"We've got this," Chloe said as she took the doorknob in hand as well, her hand over Max's, "We'll open on three. One…two… _three_!"

The hallway was dark, dark like it had been in town. There were leaves, broken glass, and debris on the floor, with some of the doors open and some of them shut or jammed after breaking. Turning on their phones to get some light going in the dimness, Max led the way forward with Chloe right behind her. _If I'm right,_ Max thought, _I should be the first door on the left from here. Lemme see…hmm…gotcha!_ Max found a dry erase board with her name halfway worn off lying in front of the closed door. Afraid to open it, Max paused with her hand just inches from the handle. Looking over her shoulder at Chloe, gulping, Max nodded and opened the door. Standing in the doorway, Max darted her hand through empty space and back out again before sighing in relief.

"We're gonna have to keep an eye out for those doorways. Probably windows, too. Fuck, we're just going to have to overall be more cautious," Max said as she led Chloe inside her room.

"Y'know, I never got to check out yer space, Max," Chloe said, looking around, "I gather it's been in better condition than this?"

The room had seen better days – books and DVDs littered the floor with both windows blown open from the outside, glass scattered along with the other trash. The bed was in shambles and many of her pictures were gone or faded by time and weather so as to be unrecognizable. A rotten clump of plant sat in a battered pot beside a shelf and Max felt a slight pang of disappointment that Lisa had died. _Sorry, Lisa, but Chloe will always come first_ , Max thought as she brushed the floor clear with her booted feet until there was a space for them to take the dusty blankets and futon mattress to put on the floor. Scrounging around through the piles and shelves, Max found her film surprisingly intact and added four cartridges of instant film to their supply. _Four cartridges…thirty-two shots… That'll have to do, and to add on what we've already got_ , Max surmised as she flopped onto the bed and groaned when her stomach rumbled.

"What I wouldn't give for a time-warped Two Whales where everything was fine and I could snag your mom's cooking," Max said, her tone flat as she rested her forearm against her forehead, "Do you think it would be safe if we went to sleep, got _some_ rest?"

"I…I dunno, babe," Chloe mused, getting up from her spot next to Max. Shutting the door, Chloe took part of the bed frame and braced it against the door, "That should keep us safe. Kinda. Maybe."

"Unless some ghosts decide to just pass through the walls."

"Thanks, smartass."

"Hey, it's logic. A kind of fucked-up logic, but at this point who knows what really makes sense."

"Tell you what, Sleepy Beauty, how's about you chill and I'll take a shift," Chloe said, sitting down beside Max as she ran her fingers through her partner's hair, "I'll wake you up in a bit, and we'll switch. M'kay?"

"Sounds like a plan," Max said as she moved around a bit so that her head was in Chloe's lap, "Chloe? What did we do yesterday?"

"Eh?" Chloe asked, looking down at an increasingly sleepy Max with a curious grin, "We just chilled. You worked on your laptop at the parlor while I worked on some tats. Why?"

"I want to remember that when I wake up, so that this doesn't feel like it's the-"

"Hey. _Hey_ , we _will_ get out of whatever-the-fuck this is, yeah? And we'll never come back. Ever."

"Agreed," Max said just before she dozed off, the sound of her soft breathing relaxing Chloe as she leaned back on her hands and shut their phones off.

"Goodnight, Max," Chloe whispered, "Love you."

* * *

Max woke up to the not-so-gentle touch of Chloe shaking her awake. Groggy and bleary-eyed, Max wiped at her face with the back of her hand to ensure there was no drool before she sat up and looked over at her partner. The look of alertness, Chloe's eyes wide open as she held her Polaroid camera at the ready told Max all she needed to know. _At least I got some sleep, but poor Chloe… How long did she let me lay here, snoring my ass off?_

"You hear something?" Max asked, her voice hushed to a whisper.

"Yeah. Sounds like it's coming from down the hall," Chloe said, her voice measured with a forced calm as she fought to keep her hands from shaking, "It's been on and off for about ten minutes."

"Then why didn't you wake me up ten minutes ago? And why did you let me sleep so long, Chloe? My phone says I've been out for four hours – you should've woken me up after two or something so you could crash!" Max grumbled, still whispering.

"I, uh, nodded off about a half-hour after you did," Chloe said sheepishly, "Look, I was hella beat, too, and I couldn't help it. We don't have anything on us to keep us awake, anyway. There's no Starbucks in The Dead Zone, and I don't even _want_ to try a soda from what is probably a rusted, broken-down vending machine."

Max groaned, getting to her feet as she helped Chloe up, dusting herself off as she switched the light from her phone off. Not wanting to risk being detected, Max quietly stood by the door with her ear to it, listening. The moaning was coming from down the hall, but it sounded like it would get a little closer and then pull back, but not before a different moaning would cut the other off. _Two ghosts? How the hell are we supposed to take out_ twoof them at the same time _?_ Max thought as she backpedaled to stand beside Chloe, pulling out her own Polaroid camera.

"I-I think there's two of them," Max stammered out as quietly as she could.

"We could always go out the window…," Chloe offered, gesturing with a jerk of her chin to the broken panes, "It'd just be another drop."

"Hell no," Max argued, "I'm not gonna risk jumping again, and neither are you. We've got to un-barricade the door and take our chances with whatever's out there. We…We have two cameras. W-We can do this!"

Chloe didn't feel half as confident as Max tried to sound, but the tattooed punk couldn't think of anything else to try. In finding a temporary shelter, they had unwittingly boxed themselves in; mumbling to herself about "hella bullshit", Chloe lifted the piece of bed frame as quietly as she could from the door before motioning for Max to help her ease it back down away from the door. Setting the wooden frame part down, they then braced themselves next to the door before Max gingerly opened it and they peeked out to see what was going on.

 _No. No, this can't be right_ , Max thought to herself as she bore witness to spectral visions of Dana and Juliet wandering around what had been Dana's room.

"Dude, didn't we _just_ have coffee with them a week ago when we went to Big Sur?" Chloe asked, whispering in Max's ear, "D'you mean to tell me we'll have to fight off ghosts from alternate realities even if we know they're alive in ours?"

"How the hell did they die, then? And why are they lingering here?" Max whispered back, "Is it because there's something in Dana's room?"

"Think you can hug them to the afterlife, Max?"

"They're…They're not like Kate was. She was solid, had substance to her. She felt warm after I hugged her. These two… They're more like Warren. Oh god, Chloe. Look. Bullet wounds. Someone shot them in their reality."

"Why the fuck would someone shoot them, and _who_?"

The two women looked at each other, and then back at the ghosts.

"Nathan," Max and Chloe said in unison, bitterness riling up in both of them.

"Chloe, follow my lead," Max said, stepping out of the doorway to head down the hall at a slow pace. Baby step by baby step, both girls made it to the restroom before Max shot her arm out to stop Chloe from proceeding any further, "They're not paying attention to us. It's like they're in, um, some sort of loop."

"Well, that'd hella explain why the noise came in and out rhythmically," Chloe said in a low tone, shrugging, "Maybe we can avoid snapping photos of them altogether."

"I don't wanna just leave them here."

"And if we take their photos and they come after us, what do you plan to do, then?" Chloe argued, a hand on Max's shoulder, "Babe, I love you and your kind heart, but this is an 'us versus them' kinda situation, y'know? Do you _really_ want to risk our lives over this?"

Max's shoulders slumped as Chloe's logic fell into place inside of the photographer's brain. Yes, it made sense to leave Dana's and Juliet's ghosts alone, but it also hurt because the thought of Kate trapped on that roof for years lingered freshly in her mind. _Kate was trapped, just like this Dana and Juliet are trapped, too. It's so unfair. This place is like a prison to everyone who died in_ some _version of Arcadia Bay. Chloe and I have already encountered alternate versions of ourselves – what else can happen?_ Following Chloe to the door, bracing herself against the opposite wall to avoid touching either Dana's ghost or Juliet's, Max watched her partner open the stairway door carefully and both women sighed at the lack of static in the air.

"Looks safe enough," Chloe said as she looked down the stairway, "We should be… Max, no!"

Before Chloe could stop her, Max snapped two shots apiece of Juliet and Dana, watching them fizzle away like burnt film. Her body spun around by a hard jerk on her shoulder, Max was face-to-face with a livid, worried Chloe.

"I wasn't going to just leave them like that! No one deserves _any_ of this, Chloe!" Max barked, taking the punk by surprise with the anger and hurt in her voice, "It might've been safer to just ignore them, but that's not _me_. Do you understand? They're…They're my _friends_."

"…Goddammit, Max," Chloe uttered, hand to her forehead as she shook her head, "At least… Just warn me next time you decide to switch to Super Max again, okay? I do not need to have a heart attack before I'm thirty."

"Coming from the person who talked about continuing on in this…whatever it is," Max said, gesturing around them, "You know you would've felt bad leaving them like that. They might not be _our_ Dana and Juliet, but they're still our friends."

"…Alright. Yea, I'd felt hella bad. Just… No more surprises like that, m'kay? Me heart."

* * *

Making their way to the courtyard, Max and Chloe took a moment to bask in the otherworldly glow of a cloudy, illuminated sky. It was different for them to actually see the world around them than to creep about at night, both women shaken and terrified as to what might lurk around the corner or in the next room. Unlike before when they had been in the courtyard, however, they were not alone this time. Standing by the entrance to the boys' dorm was Warren, to Max and Chloe's immediate surprise. Max remembered this moment, how he had asked her to go see _Planet of the Apes_ with him at a drive-in. _So anything and everything goes here. Wowser, this is_ just _great,_ Max thought as they approached the boy.

"Hey, Max. How are you?" Warren asked after Chloe pulled Max past him by the wrist, "H-Hold up! I… Wow, that's a serious makeover, Max! Lookin' sharp! You itching to party or something?"

"Hey, Warren," Max said, tugging her wrist free as she approached him, Chloe grumbling inaudibly as she tagged along her partner, "Um, this is my partner, Chloe."

"Partner? What do you… Oh. _Oh_. Holy crap, um, I-I didn't know…," Warren said, flabbergasted as his face turned a reddish hue, "So, um, there's this _Planet-"_

 _"_ Sorry, Warren, but Chloe and I already have plans. Take… Take care of yourself," Max said, closing in on him to give Warren a brief hug before she quickly let go, "And Warren?"

"Yeah…?"

"If some crazy shit starts to happen here in town, just take your car and book it. Don't risk yourself. Really. Just escape while you can," Max said before heading into the breezeway between the dorms and the school campus, hearing Warren say something about "weird advice" as they left.

"What was that?" Chloe asked, as they made their way to the quad, relieved that it was still empty this time, "And holy balls, can we talk about _this_? One minute it's like we've gone back in time, and the next we're right back where we were. Or are. I dunno – this shit's giving me a headache."

"I just… If there's a chance that what we saw with Warren _was_ in the past, then maybe it'll affect his future. You never know. I _was_ the one with time powers, remember?"

"Yeah, just like I'm the one who explained Chaos Theory and everything to you, _remember_?" Chloe teased, "Let's head back into town. We've _got_ to find some place that has grub."

"I've got bottled water in my bag if you're thirsty."

"Hungry and thirsty are two distinctly different things, Caulfield, but I won't turn down a way to quench my thirst."

Max let out a startled cry as Chloe pulled her close and kissed her deeply, a little bit of tongue action thrown in that was reciprocated after a moment. They held each other closely, hugging tightly as though either one of them might disappear into God knows where. Parting their lips from one another as they detached, Max wound her right pinky finger around Chloe's left and they walked through the lifeless quad at a leisurely place, free for the moment of ghosts and alternate realities.

The walk back to Arcadia Bay was long but amicable, the women keeping the silence and their nerves at bay through conversation. Chit-chatting and small talk, it kept their minds occupied as the gray space deep inside the forest would get sidelong glances from both Max and Chloe multiple times. _Is that like the boundary line for all this, some void?_ Chloe asked herself, _I still wanna know what happens if we were to approach it, to try and walk through it._ Making their way to the outskirts of town, crossing the town line, what felt like day turned instantly into a skyless night and the both of them turned on their phones' lights.

"Mine doesn't have much juice left. Yours?" Chloe asked, checking the power bar on her phone.

"Mine's already in the red," Max let out with a groan, "We're going to need to find flashlights."

"There's a hardware store right by Two Whales. We could try that-" Chloe started, cutting herself off as the specter of a deceased woman creeped around a building to shamble toward them, "S-She doesn't look fast, Max. Maybe we get up close, get her with one shot?"

"I'm…I'm not so sure about that," Max said, getting her camera ready as Chloe prepped her own, "But I also want to conserve our film. Alright. I'm the photographer. I've got this."

Max precipitously took her time as she headed toward the ghost, her camera up as she kept an eye on the specter through her viewfinder. When it raised its arms as it started to shamble towards her at a slightly quicker pace, Max nearly took the shot then and there. She was terrified; the feeling of being drained of life, the iciness of the touch, weighed heavily in her mind as she bravely stood her ground. _I'm also kinda frozen in fear, but I have to remember – 'Fear is the mind-killer.' Thanks, Frank Herbert._ Waiting until the ghost was nearly within reach of her, Max lined her viewfinder with the poor woman's face and snapped a single photo. Watching the ghost reel back before dissolving in a burst of burnt photo paper, Max let out her breath in a forceful exhalation and fell to her knees from the dread that had nearly consumed her. A little jumpy, she was startled when Chloe had come up from behind to hug her.

"That was awesome," Chloe said in Max's ear, the voice calm and soothing as it worked its magic on Max to help alleviate her stress, "You're amazeballs."

"I was so scared, Chloe. Half the reason I stood my ground was because I was frozen in terror. Wowser, I did it. I actually got up close and did it. I took the shot."

"Never doubted you for a second," Chloe said with a kiss to Max's cheek before hauling her girlfriend to her feet, "Now, for the hardware store."

It felt like forever, heading to the hardware store. On one hand, a straightforward walk there would be fairly quick; however, Max and Chloe found themselves checking every corner and alleyway for ghosts which led to them making the short trek into a more arduous affair. Dodging encounters with the spectral entities led them down a more zig-zag route, having to try and avoid conflict as much as possible as well as areas that were not traversable due to debris from the years-old storm and dilapidated buildings that looked to be on the edge of ruin. Ethereal shapes and glimmers seemed to be just out of eyesight everywhere they went and it felt as though nowhere was there to be some kind of safe harbor.

After hours in what should have taken minutes, both women made it to the hardware store and collapsed from sheer exhaustion. With the provisions down to two one-liter bottles of water, their hunger temporarily overrode the need to be secretive. Slumped down in the back of the store, out of eyesight, Max and Chloe sat together and passed out.

"Max. Max, wake up," Max heard a voice say as she slept, dreaming of tornados and ghosts both swirling about her. A nightmarish gleam from the moon seemed to turn the hilltop around her into a mire of death as she was continuously dodging the dead to preserve her own life, the voice a pleading echo that shook the ground with its words, " _Max._ C'mon, sleepyhead, get _up._ "

"…Wha…?" Max groggily replied before sitting straight up, covering her mouth to prevent a scream as a beam of light shone upon her, "C-Chloe! Don't do that-"

"Shh! Don't fucking let them know we're in here, dude!" Chloe hissed before switching off the flashlight to toss it into Max's lap, "Here. And guess what? I found edibles!"

Binging on an MRE from the hardware store's supply, Max stuffed her face with vegetarian penne pasta and a chocolate fudge brownie before downing some water that Chloe had also procured. The food was delicious to her, though her stomach made it also feel like she was eating a lead brick. _Wowser, I have_ never _felt so hungry in my whole life!_ Max thought to herself as she finished off the entrée and dessert, _How long was I asleep? And that nightmare… It felt too real. This whole situation is like déjà vu but with ghosts. Please tell me I won't be encountering a…a…'ghost-nado' any time soon…_

"Better?" Chloe asked as she munched on an energy bar, smirking as Max wiped the pasta sauce off her face with a wet napkin that was conveniently packed inside the MRE.

"Much, but don't let me sleep that long again," Max said, dropping the empty containers to the ground, "…How long _was_ I asleep?"

"Hours, probably. I've kept my phone off so I don't know. I slept a little, too, ya know. Need to recharge. Plus, flashlights with lots of batteries. And food. I stuffed my bag full of energy bars and water.

Max looked up and noticed that Chloe was now sporting a small backpack that looked to be loaded with supplies. _That's my Chloe._ _Raring to go, and ready for just about anything._ Getting to her feet, Max popped her neck and knuckles before she collected her camera bag from the floor.

"Now what?" Max asked, "We still have no clue how to get out of here, or what's causing this."

"Well, we know that all the spots that are really topsy-fucking-turvy have to do with us, so I was thinking we huff it back to my house again and see if we can get any answers from our younger selves. Or, hey, maybe we'll find something along the way."

"Wait. Your idea is for us to split up again, in a place where reality is like musical chairs? Chloe, you've lost your mind," Max argued, though in truth she had nothing. No idea as to what to do, "…Ugh, fine. We'll go back to your house. Just… Let's be careful, like _extra_ careful. There's no telling what might happen this time."

* * *

After a few hours of blessedly clear streets and alleyways, the pair made their way to what had been Chloe's house. Still locked under the ceiling of an endless night, the house had changed. It looked older, abandoned and dilapidated to a point of Max questioning their safety in even opening the door. An eerie mist seemed to cling to the structure, making it all the more foreboding. Chloe went up to the house first, Max behind her, and waved her hand in the midst. _It's cold, but not like death iciness. Hella weird, but that's the norm for us here. This whole deal is like a bad trip. Oh God, I'm punning like Max, now. Great._ Opening the doorway, both women were met with the now-familiar static that seemed to be hanging in the air.

"…Even if we hold hands, we'll still get separated," Max stated, squeezing Chloe's hand more tightly, "I-I don't want to lose you."

"I promised you forever, right? So don't be a wuss, babe. You're a badass, Caulfield. Just trust that we'll meet on the other side."

"Don't word it like that."

"Sorry. Couldn't resist," Chloe said as she took a step into the doorway with Max being pulled in along with her.

The house's interior reflected its exterior to Max as she crossed the threshold by herself, Chloe vanishing as if she had never been there. Looking down at her now-empty hand, Max balled it into a fist and began to explore the first floor of what had once been a source of warmth and love for her. The furniture was either broken, rotting, or both; a thick layer of dust seemed to cover everything as it was all eerily in place like time had simply fast-forwarded while Joyce and David were out of the house. Finding nothing, Max was already set to leave the house altogether when she heard "Piano Fire" start to play from Chloe's room upstairs. _What the hell_?

Chloe walked into the house and was alarmed by how nice and neat everything was, a complete juxtaposition as to the house's exterior ruination. Looking at pictures and objects she had known since she was a tween, the only thing that startled her was the lack of people. This wasn't like before, where there was a Max seemingly waiting for her. On her own, Chloe scouted the top floor first and found her bedroom abandoned, used for storage. _Hella weird_ , Chloe thought as she pulled down the mattress and laid on it. Pulling out a joint, she lit it with a Zippo and proceeded to blaze while in the warmth of what felt like the sun. _Why did I urge Max on, encourage this desire to uncover whatever the fuck is going on? Goddamn, we should've just tried to head back to the car._ Chloe sat up and snuffed out the unfinished joint only to be startled by the sound of someone calling out from downstairs.

"Is someone there?" An terrifyingly familiar voice asked, and Chloe went running.

"Is…Is someone there?" Max asked, hand paused just above the doorknob to Chloe's room, "Hello?"

No answer.

Taking a deep breath, Max tried to brace herself for anything as she opened the door and found Chloe's room exactly as it had been the morning after they had broken into Blackwell Academy. Only there was no Chloe, but a Max sitting at the foot of the bed, lighting up a joint. Dressed in a Jane Doe t-shirt, generic jeans, and a grey hoodie, this Max looked up and eyed her warily. _She knew I was coming? H-How?_ Max thought, knowing the recognition in her doppelganger's eyes. Cautiously moving forward, she shivered when the other Max laughed. It was a cold, bitter laugh.

"Told you that you fucked up space and time for your precious Chloe, dumbass," the doppelgänger said, Max realizing in horror who she was.

"You…You were in my head…," Max said in disbelief.

"Was I? Huh, strange, because it felt like you were in mine," the doppelgänger replied, "Surprise, jackass."

"Hello?" Chloe asked as she came back downstairs, hearing "In here" in what oddly sounded like her own voice. Heading for David's little workshop, Chloe opened the door to find a paler, weaker, blonder version of herself lying in a hospital bed. Staggering from the sight, Chloe braced herself against one of the snow globes collected on the TV stand and rubbed at her eyes with her free hand in the hope that it would all just vanish. _Max told me about this, about how in an alternate reality I was slowly dying and had been asked to make a terrible choice. Oh… Oh,_ fuck _, this is that place. God, Max, I need you._

"This is hella trippy," Chloe muttered while her weaker self smiled sadly.

"I still hate that word," Chloe's invalid doppelgänger replied, chuckling before it turned into a fit of coughing and wheezing, "I asked Max to help me go peacefully-"

"You basically asked her to murder you, dude!" Chloe exclaimed, moving to stand at the foot of her double's hospital bed, "You…You gave her…gave…"

"It wasn't fucking impossible, you know," Chloe's double said bitterly, "One minute she's all weepy-eyed and the next it's like she's a stranger. She tried to chat me up, but I could feel the awkwardness, the hesitation. It wasn't the same person. At least now I know _that_. _Your_ Max was a kindness; mine was… Well, she sucked, basically."

"So what do you want?" Chloe asked her double, seeing the morphine injector attached to Chloe's IV, "No… No way. Uh-uh."

"You're the only one who can, anymore. You have to."

"This is bullshit!" Max exclaimed, pacing back and forth in Chloe's room as her double lazily watched while puffing on a joint, "You're not real. You were just a figment of my subconscious…"

"Newsflash, moron," Max's double said as she snuffed out the spent joint, "Your brain was _fried_ by all that time-tripping and rewinding. You _broke_ reality, and its gooey center oozed into your brain. Did you not actually think that there would be consequences aside from just a storm?"

"I caused _this_?" Max asked, at a loss for any other words as she motioned to the window.

"You're _a_ cause of it, yes, but not the only one. I am, too. Every single Max who time-traveled is a part of it. Your precious punk already encountered the ghost of one, right? Well, that's one down in a infinite line of Maxes waiting to be snuffed out or faded away like burnt film."

"How do I stop this?" Max asked, pleadingly as she got to her knees before her double, "How do Chloe and I-?"

"Always _fucking_ Chloe!" Max's double screamed, shoving Max to the floor as she stood over her, "That bitch is the reason all this started! You just _had_ to save her! And now what, you want to save her again?! What is wrong with you, dude?"

"She's… She's grown up now. She's not like how she was when we first got back together. We're in love, we're thinking of getting married-"

"Oh, shit! Are you cereal?"

"I won't be bullied by you…," Max said as she got to her feet and punched her double in the face, knocking the twisted doppelgänger to the floor, "I'm stronger than last time, fucker, and I don't need you or anyone else telling me what to do."

Heading for the bedroom door, Max heard her double cackling and ignored it. She wasted no time in heading for the doorway, praying Chloe would be waiting for her.

"I… I need to go. Max, um, Max is probably waiting for me-" Chloe stammered out.

"And what about _me_?" Chloe's double cried out, starting to sob, "I…I _can't_ live like this, dude! Slowly dying forever. You've _got_ to help me. _Please_."

Chloe stopped in her tracks, frozen by the guilt in her chest and the pain of her double's pleading. _I wouldn't… I couldn't live like that. Not ever. Jesus fuck, Max, I'm so sorry you had to go through this_ , Chloe thought as she turned around, walked over to the bedside, and plunged the injector all the way. Without saying another word, Chloe heard a sleepy "Thank you" and ran out of the house with tears in her eyes just in time to be caught by Max's arms.

"M-Max. Max, I'm so sorry," Chloe cried as she wrapped her arms around the small photographer, "I…I saw what you went through, in the other timeline. I…I _killed_ myself."

Both girls falling to their knees, still in each other's arms, they cried alone in a black, starless night.

 **Author's Note**

 **Dark Max returns! Is it the last time we'll see her? Who knows? ;)**

 **How about that Chloe-on-Chloe action, eh? Such sadness, really. When I got to that choice in the game the first time I had to walk away from the game for a bit and cry because I've known a lot of friends who have committed suicide over the years, a chunk of them from the Army. I think LiS handled it with a fair amount of grace, but the game definitely took the darker tone established in "Out of Time" and kicked it up several notches with "Dark Room". Whatever happened to the carefree, happy shiz in Chrysalis? Oh, right, it was a clever deception. Curse you, DONTNOD, and your inevitable betrayal! LOL**

 **Hold on tight, because this story's gonna keep on coming :)**

 **Stay hella, Cinnamon Rolls!**


	5. Chapter 5

**"** **Haunted" by Evanescence**

Max couldn't think straight as she led a despondent Chloe through the suburban area of Arcadia Bay. The sky its usual black, starless pitch that enveloped the entire town, her flashlight was the sole source of light. Going from block to block down the street, managing to come up with the idea of returning to the hardware store so they could regroup and focus, Max's brain was a mess of thoughts. _Chloe…helped the other Chloe, from that alternate timeline, kill herself? Wowser. I-I couldn't even do it, so I can't imagine what Chloe must be thinking right now… And then there's that other_ me _, the one from my…from my…vision…who told me that_ I am _a cause of this?_

"Then how am I supposed to fix it?" Max asked herself in a low whisper, not wanting to bother Chloe as she led her partner by the hand down another block, "What am I supposed to do?"

"M-Max…Max, can we just stop for a sec, please," Chloe finally spoke, her voice weak as she managed to stammer out the words, "I know we're headed to the hardware store, but I need to _stop_."

"Chloe…Chloe, we can't. The ghosts-" Max started to say before being cut off when Chloe grabbed her by she shoulders and looked at her with tear-filled eyes.

"I _k-killed_ her. The other me…," Chloe sobbed, "I opened up the morphine and let her have the whole dose. A-And she thanked me, like I'd fucking done her a solid or something. Max, w-what do I do? What do I _do_ about that?"

"You live, _we_ live, and we get out of this nightmare," Max said, grabbing the hands on her shoulders and holding onto them tightly, "You're the only thing here that I know is real, Chloe. I know _we_ are real. Trust in that."

"Y-Yeah…," Chloe said, wiping the tears off her face before giving Max a sad attempt at her usual crooked grin, "I mean, this place is hella fucked up so it's no wonder we're getting blasted by the past. Just… I wish it weren't so damn gut-wrenching."

Max held onto one of Chloe's hands as she led her partner through backyards and alleyways, no longer wanting to be on the street, towards the business section of town. It was a long walk compared to the straight-forward path provided by the city's abandoned streets, added onto by the debris of long-abandoned houses and collapsed structures that would cause them to double back at times. Neither girl spoke as made their way slowly made their way towards the hardware store.

 _If Chloe loses it now…,_ Max thought as she glanced over her shoulder to see Chloe absently staring ahead, _If she doesn't snap out of this soon, I don't know what I'll do. And what about that other Max, telling me that I'm a cause of this? Was that a lie, or a truth? My time-traveling might have caused the storm, but_ this _goes beyond anything I can think of. I bet if I picked Chloe's brain about it, talking science with her might rouse her out of this fugue._

 _"_ C'mon," Max said from over her shoulder to Chloe, "The hardware store is just down this alleyway…I think…and then around the corner."

"If you say so," Max heard Chloe mumble in a deadpan tone.

Coming around the alleyway, Max sighed in relief at the sight of their _one_ sanctuary in all of this horrid mess they had endured thus far – the hardware store. Feeling Chloe's hand slip out of hers as she opened the door, Max didn't even register the static in the air inside. Max watched from turning around to see Chloe's eyes go wide as the punk tried to reach for her before she was sucked into the place.

" _Max!_ " Chloe cried out, hands shaking as she desperately tried to pull the door open, "Caulfield, lemme in!"

Chloe slammed the flat palms of her hands against the wood and glass but nothing would budge. Eyes darting left and right as Chloe began to panic, she took a few deep breaths to try and calm herself. _She's not gone…She's_ not _. She's trapped in there, somewhen or somewhere, and I have to get her out!_ Running back down the alleyway, Chloe found a back door to the garage adjacent to the hardware store and managed to break it open with the butt of her heavy flashlight. _Thank God it's a Mag-Lite,_ Chloe thought, _These damn things are like steel batons. Eat Chloe, motherfucker!_ Going inside, Chloe scanned the abandoned garage with her flashlight. A derelict car sat up on a hydraulic lift, with tools and electrical components on a dusty workbench that ran the length of the back wall. A couple boxes stacked up near the door; nothing warranting the use of her Polaroid camera as she ran across the garage to an access door leading inside the hardware store.

"This won't break so easily," Chloe grumbled as she spotted the deadbolt lock above the doorknob, "Ah, man, why's the switch for this gotta be on the other side? Max! Max, if you can hear me I'm coming!"

* * *

Max watched the door slam shut, almost knocking her aside, and immediately turned around to the sound of distant clattering. Turning on her flashlight, Max pointed the beam of light down an aisle and thought she saw something. Finding nothing there once she had reached the spot, Max cautiously backed up until she was at the storefront once more and tried the door. It would not budge, despite the door technically being unlocked. Moreover, it looked to Max more like the door had become decoration rather than an actual door. _It's like the door's just become part of the wall_ , Max thought as she ran her hand along the door's surface, _This doesn't make any sense. I just came through here._

Max turned around and was immediately startled and blinded by the flash of a Polaroid camera going off. Confused and not knowing what was going on, Max was again hit with the blinding light and began to try and pinpoint its location as her eyes tried to adjust to the sudden light alternating with darkness. There was nothing she could make out amidst the bright spots dotting her vision; squinting, vainly trying to see _anything_ through her disorienting sight, Max could have sworn she saw someone duck behind a display table for 9-volt batteries.

"W-Who's there?" Max stammered out, her vision finally beginning to clear, "I, uh, I got a flashlight. It's a heavy one. And I know Kung Fu!"

"…Max…?" a voice asked, a voice Max knew right away. _Chloe_.

"Chloe? Chloe, what the-?" Max asked before she was hit with another flash of Chloe's Polaroid camera, "Agh, stop it!"

Chloe popped up from behind her cover, and Max squinted as she shone the beam of her flashlight towards her partner. She looked a little different – her beanie was gone, and her face seemed a little more drawn, a little gaunt. Crossing the distance between them as quickly as she could with all the clutter on the ground, Max stopped mid-step when Chloe raised her camera to take another picture.

"Chloe, I-I'm _not_ a ghost! Are you cereal? You _just_ saw… You were just with me…," Max tried to explain, the terror in Chloe's eyes apparent once she had gotten close enough to the blue-haired punk, "Chloe, it's really me."

"That's… That's not true. I-I watched you…watched you...," Chloe stuttered out as tears came down her cheeks, "…Max? It's really you? No bullshit?"

"Zero on the bullshit meter," Max said, nodding as she reached out and lowered Chloe's Polaroid camera, "You wasted film, dork. Not a ghost, see? Flesh and blood."

Max watched Chloe apprehensively make her way out from behind the table and step towards her. With a single finger, Chloe poked Max and watched her skin touch skin; Max took Chloe into her arms and held the shaking girl. _The last I saw of her was just a few moments ago. What's with this? She looks like she hasn't slept for days._ Max pulled Chloe back to wipe the tears from her eyes.

"Chloe, what's going on? I swear, I _just_ saw you, but you look like you've been through hell."

"This place _is_ Hell, Max," Chloe said, taking Max's hand as she led her back and through the side door into the garage, "But even Hell has its Limbo. This is mine."

The garage was illuminated by several candles and battery-powered camping lamps, with a double-sized sleeping bag nestled in one corner on top of an air mattress. _So it's not so much a lack of sleep as a lack of_ good _sleep,_ Max thought. She could not blame Chloe for that, however, as she doubted that there was anywhere in this town that a decent amount of rest could be found. _This…This is wrong, it doesn't make sense._ Letting go of Chloe's hand, Max stood and looked at her partner-in-crime.

"You act like I'm a ghost, then you make it sound like you have been on your own forever… Chloe, what the fuck is going on?" Max demanded, the sternness in her voice making Chloe whimper, "Aw, I'm sorry. I didn't mean to upset you. This… All this is just so _wrong_ …"

"The l-last time I saw you, Max, was when we were at the lighthouse…," Chloe slowly drawled out, her words measured carefully as she motioned for Max to sit, "You had told me about the 'other Max' you'd seen at my old house and a theory you had about capturing other Max Caulfields on film to try and put an end to all this. Dude, all I wanted was to hella escape this place, but you were dead-set against it by that point. Super-Max, to the rescue, and all that bullshit… B-But you're here, now, and w-we can finally figure out how to get the fuck out of this town for _good_!"

Max looked at the area and surveyed everything. There was no way for Chloe to have done all of this in the few minutes they had been separated, and Max had no clue what she was talking about when it came to this 'theory' about taking pictures of other Max Caulfields. _The door_ does _look hella strange,_ Max thought as she remembered how the hardware store's door had slammed shut on her, _Is it possible I went into the static place and this is another Chloe? Makes no sense, though. She's dressed just like I remember her…_ Max walked up to Chloe, who was gathering together some food from the leftovers of MREs, and put a hand on her shoulder. When Chloe looked up, however, it was not the joyfulness of reunion that she saw but Max's overwhelming curiosity.

"Chloe… When was the last time you saw me?" Max asked, a little hardness in her voice.

"…I don't wanna talk about that, now that you're here and you're back," Chloe replied, obviously avoiding the subject, "Just…Just leave it alone, Max."

"No, Chloe. How _long_?"

"…It's been a week since you…since you…"

"Since I _what_?"

"Since you _died_ , okay?!" Chloe spat out, "Since you shot yourself, thinking that if you died it would all go away! Didn't happen, though, did it? No, I'm still here…but you're here now and everything will get-"

Max backed away from Chloe, the other girl's voice becoming increasingly troublesome and deranged. What Chloe said made no sense; Max had not died, and she had just seen Chloe only a moment ago before…

"…I entered the hardware store, alone," Max murmured, spinning around as she headed back inside the store with Chloe scrambling to her feet.

"No! Don't go! I'm sorry, I shouldn't have said all that!" Chloe cried out as Max tried the door again. It budged, barely, but Max could see outside and hear _her_ Chloe, the original Chloe, calling out for her. Forcing the door open, some invisible force at work in making it so difficult, Max pushed herself through the partially-opened doorway just as the nightmarish Chloe latched on.

" _Please don't leave me!"_ Chloe screamed, and Max saw through the static haze as Chloe burst into tears, " _I can't lose you, keep losing you, over and over again!"_

"I'm sorry," Max said, now weeping as well, "But I'm not yours to have. I don't know what happened to you and your Max, but I have no intention of dying here."

Kicking her foot free of the hand latched onto it, Max was propelled forward and through the door just as it once again shut behind her.

* * *

"Max! Damn, girl, d'you know I've been tryin' to get into the store for the past five… Whoa, hey, are you okay?" Chloe asked, grabbing ahold of the frantic photographer before letting out a faint cry of surprise when Max latched onto her by the shoulders.

"Chloe? Chloe, is it really _you_? I-I'm not… How long since the last time you saw me?" Max asked, panic thick in her voice.

"Calm the fuck down, Max. It's been- "

"How _long_?!"

"…Five minutes, tops," Chloe said, letting go of Max so she could pull out her phone, "I kept track an' everything. I'm…I'm back on top of things. What happened at that house… I can't let it get to me, I just can't. I won't. We're in this to win-"

"We need to get _out_ of this hellhole!" Max exclaimed, burying her face into Chloe's shirt, "I-I don't know how much more I can stand, Chloe. I think I'm near my limit of alternate realities, ghosts, all of it. I just…"

Max told Chloe everything about the encounter with Chloe's future self; at first, Chloe had figured it was a hallucination or some trick being played on them. The more Max told her, over and over, the clearer it became to Chloe that Max had felt it was real enough to terrify her and that made it real for Chloe. Helping Max to her feet, Chloe led Max into the garage and found nothing of what Max had mentioned. In truth, Chloe knew that there was nothing like what Max had described for she had already been inside the structure. It was Max who needed convincing in this case. Spreading her arms wide, Chloe gestured to the interior of the garage and its lack of signs that someone had occupied the space. When Max started to calm down, however, Chloe lightly punched her in the arm.

"What was that for?" Max asked, rubbing her arm tentatively, eyes wary.

"For offing yourself in this alternate future whazzit. Don't think you can just leave me behind or try to fix things by killing yourself, Max."

"Chloe, that wasn't _me._ "

"Still," Chloe said, jabbing a finger in Max's direction, "We don't even _go_ there. Got it?"

"Y-Yeah. I never had any… What would make me think doing something like that might change things?"

"Because all this whackness started years ago, with your time powers. But that ship sailed, my babe, because this town was wiped the fuck out. So, this, whatever this is? Not on us. Not on you, capiche?"

Chloe was not satisfied until Max nodded a second time, the first being weak and not reassuring at all. Slumping down to the floor, Polaroid camera dangling from the cord it was on, Chloe sighed and pulled Max close to her. She could not imagine a world where she and Max were parted so violently. _I probably_ would _lose my shit if Max did what that other me told her she did_ , Chloe thought, _But right now, we need to strategize. Game plan type of stuff? Like, how the fuck are we even supposed to get out of this place? Shouldn't there be, I dunno, some kinda hella epic final boss or whatever?_ Chloe scratched at her beanie and squeezed Max a little tighter.

"Okay, so we need to figure some shit out, pronto," Chloe said finally, after neither girl had spoken for what felt like an hour, "Like, where's the borders for this place? How far does it go? And we need to _stick together_ , meaning no more doorways or anything like that without a thorough search to make sure neither of us get sucked into another alternate timeline. Past, present, or future – we do it together."

"Agreed," Max said, nodding emphatically, "I've had my fill of parallel worlds. If I've got you to back me up, it won't be so bad."

"Well, I _am_ quite the badass," Chloe said, a smug little grin on her face.

" _My_ badass."

Gathering their bags, Max swapped out her small flashlight for one of the battery-operated lamps and led the way as they headed out of the garage. Checking the hardware store door, Max and Chloe found it odd that the entrance to what had only hours ago been their sanctuary was now locked. Shrugging, Max looked at Chloe who in turn jerked a thumb at the bag of goodies she was carrying on her back. _We're supplied, we're armed with plenty of film. Do or… No, it's now or never_ , _Max. Don't go to that bad place_ , Max thought to herself as they turned the corner and headed back towards Blackwell Academy and the murky forest beside it.

Walking through the forest felt like something from a dream to Chloe as Max led the way with her lantern. It was more than just a grayness that could be made out deeper in the woods; there was an ethereal quality to their surroundings, almost mystical. A low fog hung at their ankles and the girls watched their footing as best they could manage. While the town was relatively "plagued" with ghosts, the forest seemed to be completely devoid of them. Munching on an energy bar as her partner led the way, Chloe wondered what it would be like to probe the gray space they were closing in on. _Is it a barrier? Will we push and simply be pushed back? Or is it more like 'in one place and out another' like…like… Fuck, I can't remember the name of it…_

"Alright. We're here," Max said, setting her lantern down amidst the fog-covered ground as she and Chloe stood before the grayness that seemed to stretch past the naked eye, "I'm going to look through my viewfinder, see if there's anything we need to worry about."

Max pulled out her old Polaroid camera and lined up a shot of the grayness. _Nothing. Not even a glimpse of what's past it. It's like a solid wall, really._ Lowering her camera, Max reached out and felt Chloe's fingers intertwine with her own as they touched the grayness. Their hands went into it as deep as their wrists. It was cold, but not a leeching cold like the ghosts had been. There was a substance to it, thick and churning like wet cement being constantly poured. Pulling their hands back together, Max and Chloe examined their digits and found nothing. Their hands weren't even paler from exposure to the chilled area.

"Curiouser and curiouser," Chloe remarked as she nudged the space with a boot, "Nothing. I figured it'd be hella creepy, with faces and hands reaching out for us."

One look from Max left Chloe giving the other girl a cringing smile.

"But it's not, and it isn't, so we're good? Yeah?"

"Sure, Chloe. I'm glad you didn't lead us to a death trap. Wowser," Max said, a mildly contemptable smirk on her face, "So now what, genius?"

"That question seems to come a lot."

"That's because, aside from making ghosts turn into burnt film, we've got _nada_ on how this place works. Alternate timelines abound, multiple versions of ourselves – alive and dead – linger about this place, and we have _cameras_. Forgive me if I choose to be less than thrilled one secret is revealed."

"Well, I say we head somewhere…significant. Somewhere that a lot of shit went down. The girls' room at Blackwell."

"Blackwell? We were just there!" Max cried out, sitting down amidst the fog, "Really? You want to go back?"

"Max, this stuff is tied into that week, so it only seems hella right that maybe things go down in 'hot spots' or whatever," Chloe said before kneeling down to face Max, "Look. We've both been traumatized multiple times over since we got here. We've seen some fucked up shit, and then some. I… I'm grasping at straws, babe, but if it leads to something then who the fuck knows? It'll be more than we have now."

"…You're right," Max admitted after a moment of stewing it all over in her head, "We don't have much else of a lead. I… I'm just sick of all of it."

"Believe me when I say that I know that feel, dude."

* * *

The girls made their way back to Blackwell and it was as though the 'time bubble', as Chloe had coined it along the way, popped. The illumination of the cloudless sky had been replaced with the dark, oppressive starless sky that shrouded the rest of the town. Gone was the peacefulness of the courtyard and the school's untouched façade; instead, the school was dilapidated with a feeling of abandonment permeating the place with a sense of great loss and foreboding. A number of ghosts wandered the distance between Max, Chloe, and the entrance. One front door was gone completely, broken and lying on the steps, while another hung open by a single hinge. Preparing their cameras, Max slapped a fresh cartridge into hers as Chloe counted in her head just how many shots she had left. Shaking her head, Chloe pulled out the near-depleted cartridge and discarded it in favor of a full one just as Max had. Tip-toeing through the campus, the two did their best to avoid the ghosts, snapping shots only when the specters came close enough that it was warranted. Max would have preferred to help the ghosts by freeing them, if that is what the shots truly did, but she opted on the side of caution and preservation of their film supply.

Making it inside, Chloe flipped on her flashlight as Max powered down her camping lantern. Voices seemed to echo through the halls, people lost to the storm or its aftermath. _How many people died because the relief services took too long?_ Max asked herself, _How many went unnoticed because of, well, time?_ Max wondered how many ghosts filled the halls of the school, how many faces she had once known might be fizzled out in a brilliant flash of her or Chloe's Polaroid cameras; the idea left a hollow pit in her chest. Peering from around the corner, Max signaled to Chloe that the coast was clear for them to cross the hallway to the girls' room.

"You ready?" Chloe asked, grabbing ahold of the door knob.

"Not really, but we don't seem to have any say in the matter at this point," Max conceded, her slight defeatist attitude getting a grimace from Chloe.

"Dude, we _will_ make it out of this place alive. Trust me."

"I do. I just don't trust this place," Max said as they entered the girls' room.

Chloe looked behind her to see that Max was nowhere to be found as the girls' room door closed. _Fuck!_ Chloe cursed internally, gritting her teeth before she slammed the door with the flat of her palm, _I hate this place!_ Like Max, Chloe was sick of the mind games that seemed to be played on them constantly; unlike Max, she buried it as survival was paramount and there was a need for one of them to be optimistic. Chloe stood in the ruined bathroom and chuckled a bit to herself.

"Who thought _I_ would be the optimist in this hellhole?" she remarked as a pale blue light emanated from the end of the room. Readying her camera, Chloe watched as a ghostly Nathan Prescott appeared, "Oh, you've gotta be… Oh, man…"

A gunshot wound to his temple, blood splattered on the front of his clothes, Chloe watched as spectral tears ran down his face while he simply remained in place and looked at her. She never thought she would harbor anything for Nathan but bitterness and anger, but there was something saddening about his state. _He killed himself, after…after killing me. Oh, fuck…_ Chloe thought as her hands trembled a little with the camera in hand.

"I'm sorry…I'm so sorry…sorryyyyyyy…," Nathan's ghost wailed as it looked at her, "D-Didn't meaaaaan toooo…"

"Yeah, but you still did," Chloe said, all emotion drained from her voice, "Wait. Max was here still, in this room when it happened. Nathan, _what did you do to Max_?"

Max entered the girls' room and suddenly found herself crouched down at the end of it, hiding behind the stalls. Looking around, she immediately rolled her eyes upon recognizing the state of its cleanliness and lack of dilapidation. _Back in time. Again,_ Max thought with a chagrin as she peered around the corner and immediately froze. Lying in a pool of her own blood, a 19-year-old Chloe Price lay still on the floor. Rushing forward, scrambling to her feet as she moved, Max knelt in the pool of blood collecting around Chloe and began to cry as she held the limp head in her hands. Chloe was dead, her skin cooling as the warmth left it.

"Chloe, no…," Max sobbed out. It did not matter to Max that this was an alternate timeline; seeing Chloe suffer in any world always caused her a grieving wound to the heart, "No!"

Touching her forehead to the dead girl's, Max felt her tears run down the sides of her face and watched as they landed on Chloe's pale skin. _Is this a timeline where I chose to_ not _save Chloe? I-I wrecked reality for her, multiple times over. Why would I go back and undo it all? To save the town? What's the point, then, of that whole week we had together if I just undid it all?_ Max thought with a deep bitterness as she cradled Chloe's head in her lap and began to rock gently. Max was on the verge of losing her sanity to this place, bombarded time and again with ghosts and visions of people she knew from years ago.

"I should've never come back here," Max whispered to herself as she tucked some loose blue hair behind Chloe's ear, "I-I saved you, but somewhere…sometime else you still died. I-If… If you're dead here, Chloe, then where's your ghost? Where are you?"

With that, the door to the girls' room opened and Max, sobbing as she gently set Chloe's head down, walked forward to whatever was beckoning her…

 **Author's Note -**

 **Divided they fall...?**

 **Only time will tell ;)**

 **Stay hella, Cinnamon Rolls!**


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